Young Adult Colorectal Cancer Rates Rising
June 8, 2009 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Young adults in the United States are being diagnosed with more colorectal cancer today than years ago despite a decline that started in the mid-1980s.
Screening played a large role in colorectal cancer prevention and detection, which helped lower the numbers. Colonoscopies can detect polyps, overgrowth of tissue, that can become cancerous. If they’re detected and removed through colonoscopy, that’s one less chance of developing the cancer. And, if colorectal cancer does occur, if it’s detected early enough, colorectal cancer has 90% cure rate. But, this is really only for people over 50 years old as regular colon screenings ar
en’t usually suggested for younger people who aren’t considered to be high risk.
Now, however, according to an article published in the June 2009 issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention,
American Cancer Society researchers led by Rebecca L. Siegel, M.P.H., looked at trends in colorectal cancer incidence rates between 1992 and 2005 among young adults (ages 20 to 49) by sex, race/ethnicity, age, stage at diagnosis, and anatomic subsite. The study found that among individuals ages 20 to 49, incidence rates of colorectal cancer increased 1.5 percent per year in men and 1.6 percent per year in women from 1992 to 2005. Among non-Hispanic Whites, rates increased for both men and women in each 10-year age grouping (20-29, 30-39, and 40-49 years) and for every stage of diagnosis. They found the largest annual percent increase in colorectal cancer incidence was in the youngest age group (20-29 years), in whom incidence rates rose by 5.2% per year in men and 5.6% per year in women.
How could this be? It may very well have to be with the rising obesity and high fat diets, as well as the popularity of fast food in the country, both of which are risk factors for colorectal cancer.
People who eat a lot of fast food eat much more meat and drink a lot less milk than those people who don’t eat a lot of fast food. Processed meat and red meat are both known to contribute to colorectal cancer risk, while milk seems to provide some protection. If a child is raised with this type of lifestyle, this increases the likelihood of them developing cancer later on in life.
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Images: iStock.com, Newscom.com
I know patients in their 20s and 30s who have colostomies, others who have metastatic disease, and others who have gone through horrific treatments and are finally cured. All had to fight to receive their diagnosis because doctors perceived that they were too young for cancer. While this report is bad news, maybe it will serve some good by waking doctors up and helping them to diagnose patients at early more treatable stages.
Kairol Rosenthal
Author of Everything Changes: The Insider’s Guide to Cancer in Your 20s and 30s
Kairol Rosenthal
Everything Changes: The Insider’s Guide to Cancer in Your 20s and 30s (Wiley, 2009)
Blog: Everythingchangesbook.com