It's more of a relaxing vacation versus a touristy one.

Natasha Allen is packing for the trip of a lifetime. Traveling to Egypt is just one stop on her bucket list. At 27 years old, she's got big plans.

I visited Asia, Europe, North America. Antarctica is probably going to have to happen last.

But there's an urgency to Natash's bucket list.

Go scuba diving, go sky diving, which is funny because I'm scared of heights.

She was diagnosed with a serious and rare form of cancer four years ago.

I feel some sense of control just knowing that I'm able to check things off.

Natasha is a part of a growing and disturbing uptick of younger people, people under 50, diagnosed with cancer, like Kate Middleton, Chadwick Bosman, and actress Olivia Munn.

Cancer is the... That's the word you don't want to But maybe most concerning to many is the rise in cancers in even younger adults under the age of 40.

More than 84,000 new cases are estimated to be diagnosed in people between the ages of 15 and 39 this year alone. Rates of new cancers in this age group increasing nearly a whole percentage point each year on average between 2014 and 2018. Why do you think we're seeing a rising rate in the diagnosis of cancer, and more specifically in young people?

Particularly in younger patients, what we're seeing are a lot of stage 3, stage 4, so advanced cancers. That's a little bit more sobering because what that tells us is that something is changing. Something is changing globally or environmentally that could be affecting large groups of patients.

I think the image of a cancer patient is an older person who's frail. When you hear cancer, you think death right away, even if you don't want to. I just kept on thinking, I am 23, I'm 23. This is not supposed to What's going to happen to me. I have stage one pancreatic cancer, which is a rare diagnosis.

Experiencing cancer as a young person can be alienating for many. Some Gen Z and millennial patients are turning to social media to cope and share their journeys on TikTok or Cancer Talk.

Let's dance.

You're joking. I predicted my cancer.

Natasha also joined Cancer Talk shortly after her initial diagnosis in 2020. Let's go and rewind the tape when you first notice symptoms. Help me to understand what that was like.

In the fall of 2019, I started having knee issues. As you can see, it's quite large. And my other knee looks normal. It started affecting my walking. I started limping and limping is not so cute when you are 22 years old and just fresh out of college.

She searched for answers for months and ultimately was diagnosed with stage three synovial sarcoma.

I sat on the table and my doctor came in, did not even look at me, and he was just like, It's a tumor. Had no emotion. And then I asked him, What tumor? And he said, Synovial sarcoma. Google it. So I took out my phone and googled it. And the first thing it says is rare and aggressive. When I saw that, I started crying. That day, it was just the darkest day of my life.

The National Cancer Institute describes synovial sarcoma as a cancer that tends to be found near large joints, such as the knees. It's so rare that only one or two people in a million are diagnosed with this type of cancer each year in the United States.

These cancers tend to arise in soft tissues, mostly muscles. And so patients will often say that they've noticed a lump over the course of weeks to months that's been growing, maybe even years.

Dr. Salman Punaker is an oncologist who specializes in treating sarcomas. When people are watching this, a young person, they might say, Well, I can't get screened until I'm in my 40s for most of these things.

What we know about the younger people who are developing in cancers is that we don't know what's making them high risk, and we don't have a way to identify them ahead of time. So my advice for anybody who's concerned is that if you have something that's going on in your health that you feel is not addressed, make sure that you get to the bottom of it.

After undergoing chemotherapy and radiation, Natasha went into remission the following spring. Feeling optimistic, she pursued one of her first lifelong dreams, moving from Los Angeles to New York. But just one month after landing in the Big Apple, in less than six months after her last treatment ended, she received devastating news. The cancer was back, and it had spread.

There were spots on my lungs. I did a biopsy, November 2021, confirmed synovus sarcoma stage 4. I expected my cancer to come back, but I was expecting to have 2-5 good years before it came back. Got less than a year. And I think I just started taking stock on my life. So right now, I'm just fighting it, doing all I can, but then also enjoying my life as being a 27-year-old in New York.

That life includes a 9:00 to 5:00 job in finance, spending time with her mom, Sabina, who is a producer at ABC News.

Hemo kits.

And keeping up with her Cancer Talk account, which has exploded in popularity.

Someone just responded to me now saying, I wanted to tell you that your story is so inspiring, and I'm so thankful I came across your page.

You When you're talking about followers, you've got more than 168,000 followers, more than 22 million likes. What does that make you feel like?

It makes me happy, but not for the pursuit of Fame, but more so that more people are seeing the awareness I'm bringing to the disease.

I watched a lot of your videos, and you managed to make very difficult times into sometimes extremely funny moments. Where does that come from?

If you think about it, you either cry or you laugh. Laugh, and I'd rather be laughing than crying.

That online community, a lifeline for so many, like 19-year-old Isabella Strahan, my colleague, Michael Strahan's daughter, who, in partnership with the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke, has documented her battle with meduloblastoma, a type of brain cancer.

Every day is another day closer to getting better.

And Lydia Abai, diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma when she was in college. One of the worst chemo symptoms that no one talks about is how everything tastes horrible. She now says she's cancer It's all free.

I'm really grateful that people posted their experiences. That's when I started posting my mind to help other people.

While there's more support to be gained from Cancer Talk and similar posts, some medical experts urge caution in using social media as a diagnostic tool.

It may not be always accurate for every single patient.

Oncologist Dr. Laura Chambers has studied online content surrounding cancer, looking at the validity of claims made on TikTok videos specifically about gynecologic cancer.

There's a lot of misinformation about things that are not necessarily recommended extended cancer treatments. So things that may be alternative therapies, herbal remedies, things like that, which may not have a lot of evidence.

But she says there's no denying the connection patients feel from these posts.

I think that it is an amazing resource because Cancer Talk really allows people to find a community, be able to share their experiences, which can be really helpful.

When Natash is not online, Hey, guys. Her Trivia Night with Friends is one of her favorite weekly traditions.

The only reason I know about her is sleep. It gives me a sense of normalcy and just being able to hang out with friends and not think about cancer, I guess, and just being a normal 20-year-old in New York City.

You talked about mortality. In sharing your diagnosis, how did you explain to your audience what the outcome of a diagnosis like this was?

So 15% of people with my diagnosis live another five years. I'm trying to be one of those 15%. I'm an overachiever. I got straight A's. I went to an Ivy League. If anyone can beat this, it's going to be me. And I have to tell myself that, too. I will be one of those 15%. Our thanks to Dr. Sutton.