According to the latest report from the American Cancer Society on colorectal cancer, adults in the United States are diagnosed with colon and rectal cancer at a younger age, and currently 1 in 5 new cases occur in people age 50. years or less.
The report says the proportion of colorectal cancer cases among adults younger than 55 increased from 11% in 1995 to 20% in 2019. There also appears to be a general shift toward more advanced cancer diagnoses. In 2019, 60% of all new cases of colorectal cancer among all ages were advanced.
Colon and rectal cancers are on the rise among people under 50, researchers say.
"Interestingly, it's not uncommon these days to hear about a young person with advanced colorectal cancer," said Dr. William Dowth, chief scientist for the American Cancer Society. For example, Broadway actor Quentin Oliver Lee died last year at age 34 after being diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer, and in 2020, Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman died at age 43 of cancer. colon.
"We've never heard or seen this before, but now it's a high percentage of colorectal cancer in people under 55," Dahut said.
While it's hard to pinpoint the cause of the increase in colorectal cancer among young adults, some factors may be due to changes in people's environment or diet, he said.
"We're not trying to blame anyone for being diagnosed with cancer," Dahut said. "But when you see something happen over a short period of time, it's most likely something external to the patient that's leading to it, and it's hard not to think at least when you have something like colorectal cancer that there's something to do. with diet is not related to that. impossible."
Get a colon exam early, say new guidelines
The new report also says that more people are surviving colorectal cancer, with relative survival rates at least five years after diagnosis rising from 50% in the mid-1970s to 65% between 2012 and 2018, thanks in part to advances in treatment.
This is good news, said Dr. Paul Oberstein, a medical oncologist at New York University Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center, who was not involved in the new report. General trends indicate that colorectal cancer incidence and mortality are slowly declining.
“If you look at overall trends, the incidence of colon cancer in this report dropped from 66 per 100,000 in 1985 to 35 per 100,000 in 2019, almost in half,” Oberstein said.
“The changes in death rates are even more impressive,” he said. “In 1970, which was a long time ago, the death rate from colorectal cancer was 29.2 per 100,000 people, and in 2020 it is 12.6 per 100,000 people. Therefore, a drastic reduction in mortality by more than 55% per 100,000 people.”
Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States and the leading cause of cancer death among men under age 50.
Dowth said the best way to reduce your risk of colorectal cancer is to follow screening guidelines and have a stool-based test or imaging test, such as a colonoscopy, when recommended. Any suspicious polyps can be removed during a visual examination, reducing the risk of cancer.
"At ACS, we recommend that if you're in the intermediate-risk group, start testing at age 45," Dahut said. "Your follow-up evaluation is usually based on the results of that screening."
"Anxious" transition to a younger age
For the new report, American Cancer Society researchers analyzed data from the National Cancer Institute and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on cancer screenings, cases and deaths.
The researchers found that from 2011 to 2019, the incidence of colorectal cancer in people younger than 55 increased by 1.9% per year. And while the overall colorectal cancer death rate fell by 57% between 1970 and 2020, the death rate among people under age 50 has continued to rise. % per year since 2004.
