Younger people who develop colon cancer tend to be diagnosed at a later stage of severe disease and have more aggressive tumors, a new study has found.
The study authors “strongly” linked colon cancer in young people to obesity, family history, inflammatory bowel disease, and symptoms such as abdominal pain and rectal bleeding.
Researchers looked at approximately 319,000 colon cancer diagnoses in the United States between 2015 and 2021. Approximately 17,000 of these patients were between the ages of 18 and 44, and the remaining 302,000 were elderly.
Colon cancer has long been associated with older adults, especially people over 65 years of age. However, the incidence of colorectal cancer has steadily increased among adults under the age of 50 since the 1990s.
“Over the past 20 years, we’ve seen a 20% decrease in colon cancer diagnosis rates in patients 66 and older,” said study lead author Kelly, a fourth-year general surgery resident at Loyola University Medical Center.・Dr. Chan said. Chicago.
“However, the incidence of this cancer among people aged 18 to 44 has increased by 15% over the same period,” she added.
Chan’s team noted that non-Hispanic black patients were significantly overrepresented among the young adult cases they studied, and a surprisingly high number of patients were diagnosed at a later stage of the disease.
Chadwick Boseman was both — the “Black Panther” star was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2016 at age 39 and died in 2020 at age 43.
Oncologists attribute the worrisome increase in infections and deaths among young people in part to obesity, sedentary lifestyles, Western diets, excessive sugar intake, and pollutants in the air, soil, and water. It blames environmental factors such as pollutants, as well as other factors not yet identified.
“Our findings highlight the need for further research to understand the development of colon cancer in adults younger than 45 years,” said Chan.
Inspired by this alarming trend, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force changed its colorectal cancer screening guidelines in 2021, lowering the recommended age for starting screening for average-risk adults from 50 to 45.
Young people diagnosed with colorectal cancer are more likely to experience anxiety and uncertainty about their physical and mental health, career, finances, fertility and family planning, another new study finds. .
Researchers at the University of Michigan interviewed 35 patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer before age 50 and determined that programming was needed to address patients’ unique challenges.
“To better understand these issues in patients with colorectal and other cancers and ultimately rebuild comprehensive cancer programs to ensure we treat patients, not just the disease, we need Further research is needed,” said study lead author Dr. .Samantha Savich.
Savich and Chan’s research is scheduled to be presented at the American College of Surgeons Conference in San Francisco in the coming days.
