Added fructose is different from fruit fructose, a natural sugar found in fruits that is typically accompanied by fiber and other nutrients that slow down its absorption into the blood.
“Fructose - added to thousands of US food and drinks...”
Typical usual bad “science” writing, hence the confusion. Should have been
“High fructose corn syrup”
But that said, fructose is fructose. High-fructose corn syrup is a mixture of glucose and fructose. Glucose is glucose.
Neither are carcinogens. What their sugar dump into your bloodstream does to your pancreas is another matter.