Colorectal cancer is rising among young people and scientists are trying to discover why

The age difference in colorectal cancer cases and deaths in the United States is not correlated with the racial makeup, but rather the effects of disease screening

Mendelsohn says she has seen an increase in advanced colorectal cancers and diagnoses among her younger patients, and she says to watch for symptoms such as rectal bleeding, abdominal pain and changes in bowel habits.

He said that they were not trying to blame anyone for their cancer diagnosis. You can think about diet related to colorectal cancer because you can see something happening in a short period of time.

More left-sided tumors have been diagnosed and the report shows an increase in tumors close to the rectum. The proportion of colorectal cancers in that location has steadily climbed from 27% in 1995 to 31% in 2019.

If you are at high risk for colorectal cancer, you should get a screening test such as a colonoscopy, which is recommended, Dahut said. If you have any suspicious polyps, they can be removed during a visual exam.

The age to start screening was decreased from 50 to 45 in order to try to screen more people, according to a new report, but still we need to understand why this increase is occurring.

For the new report, researchers at the American Cancer Society analyzed data from the National Cancer Institute and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on cancer screenings, cases and deaths.

“We know rates are increasing in young people, but it’s alarming to see how rapidly the whole patient population is shifting younger, despite shrinking numbers in the overall population,” Rebecca Siegel, senior scientific director of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the report, said in a news release. The trend toward more advanced disease in people of all ages is surprising, and should motivate everyone 45 and older to get screened.

There were differences in racial makeup. The researchers found that colorectal cancer cases and deaths were highest in the American Indian/Alaska Native and Black communities. Colorectal cancer death rates were higher in American Indian men and Black men than White men, according to the data.

The findings highlight the importance of colorectal cancer screening, Dr. Robin Mendelsohn, gastroenterologist and co-director of the Center for Young Onset Colorectal and Gastrointestinal Cancers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said in an email.

Patients and providers need to be aware of the symptoms in order to be evaluated promptly. “And, if you are at an age to get screened, please get screened.”

A couple of years ago, she noticed that her stomach often felt irritable, and she would get sudden urges to use the restroom, sometimes with blood in her stool. She even went to the hospital one day when her symptoms were severe, she said, and she was told it might be a stomach ulcer before being sent home.

The Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman: She died of colon cancer young age age 43 in October 2020. She is still being watched by doctors

“That was around the time when Chadwick Boseman, the actor, passed away. I remember watching him on the news and having the same symptoms,” Lawson said of the “Black Panther” star who died of colon cancer at age 43 in August 2020.

Instead, Lawson thought changing her diet would help. She stopped eating certain red meats and ate more fruits and vegetables. She began losing a lot of weight, which she thought was the result of her new diet.

“When I went and I saw my gastro, she said, ‘I’m sorry, I have bad news. We see something. We sent it off to get testing. It looks like it is cancer. My whole world just kind of blanked out,” Lawson said. I was so surprised to learn that I was 35 years old, healthy, and raising my daughter.

The former teacher underwent a lot of surgeries and treatment for her cancer. She is being watched closely by her doctors.

She said she cried through the treatments and had to be strong for her daughter who was 4 at the time. If you see symptoms or something is not right, be sure to let me know. and you’re losing a lot of weight and not really trying to, go to see a doctor.”

Signs and symptoms of colorectal cancer include changes in bowel habits, rectal bleeding or blood in the stool, cramping or abdominal pain, weakness and fatigue, and weight loss.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/24/health/colorectal-cancer-young-age-mystery/index.html

Is there an increase in genetic mutations that raise the risk of colorectal cancer in a younger age? A study by Lawson and Lee-Kong

There’s probably more than just one cause, said Lawson’s surgeon, Dr. Steven Lee-Kong, chief of colorectal surgery at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey.

Although, as expected, the percentage of colorectal cancer caused by such mutations, e.g., Lynch syndrome is more common, it’s not likely there has been an increase in the genetic mutations that raise the risk of colorectal cancer.

“They were established as risk factors in older cohorts of patients, but they do seem to be also associated with early-onset disease, and those are things like excess body weight, lack of physical activity, high consumption of processed meat and red meat, very high alcohol consumption,” said Rebecca Siegel, a cancer epidemiologist and senior scientific director of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society, who was lead author of this month’s report.

“But the data don’t support these specific factors as solely driving the trend,” she said. If you have excess body weight, you are at higher risk of colorectal cancer in your 40s than if you are average weight. That is true. But the excess risk is pretty small. So again, that is probably not what’s driving this increase, and it’s another reason to think that there’s something else going on.”

Many people who are being diagnosed with cancer at a younger age were not obese, including one case in which a Broadway actor died from cancer at the age of 34.

Most of these patients are very healthy, which is the word on the street, anecdotally, from conferences that I have attended. They’re not obese; they’re very active,” Siegel said, which adds to the mystery.

“There are also some other factors, such as the growing incidence of inflammatory bowel disease, that may also be playing a role, and I think the biggest factors is most likely the diet, the lifestyle and the environmental factors,” he said.

If a person with a polyp in their colon develops into cancer, it can take up to 15 years to develop, so it’s hard to know the reasons for the rise of cases in younger ages.

A group of people who are being screened earlier with colonoscopies, and where we can potentially detect cancer cell DNA in the stool sample, are leading to earlier diagnosis. And sometimes that effect will skew statistics and make it look like the incidence is really on the rise, but deeper analysis shows you that part of that is due to earlier detection and more screening,” he said. That could be a part of the equation.

Dormady said that younger people are consuming less healthy food, such as fast food, and that they also contain higher concentrations of carcinogens and mutagens.

“It’s well-publicized that child, adolescent, young adult obesity is rampant, if not epidemic, in our country,” he said. “And whenever a person is at an unhealthy weight, especially at a young age, which is when the cells are most susceptible to DNA damage, it really starts the ball rolling in the wrong direction.”

Dormady said that he doesn’t believe there is any proof that genetic syndromes are becoming more frequent. I don’t think there’s going to be a rise in the inherent frequencies of those genes.

The rise has been on our radar since the 1990s and has been increasing. The numbers are small even though it is increasing. It is still a small population.