Colon cancer among people under 50 is on the rise, and tumors are often diagnosed at an advanced stage, according to research presented Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The findings were based on a US study of more than a million people over the course of 10 years. They were presented during Digestive Disease Week, a medical conference in San Diego, California.<\/p>\n
“While the healthcare system has done a great deal to address colorectal cancer in people over 50 — heightening patient awareness and increasing screenings — our findings show that much more needs to be done to fight this cancer in people under 50, a group not normally considered at risk,” said lead author Elie Sutton, a research fellow at Mt. Sinai West Hospital in New York.<\/p>\n
“Not only did we find that the rate of colorectal cancer in this group is rising, we also saw that within the group that was diagnosed at a younger age, a higher percentage were diagnosed at later stages of cancer (stage three or four), which is very concerning,” she added.<\/p>\n
Over the decade of research, the number of colon cancer cases in under-50s rose by 11.4 percent, about 136 new cases every year.<\/p>\n
This rise among young people comes even as overall colon cancer rates have been declining in recent years.<\/p>\n
The study found colon cancer rates in those older than 50 fell by 2.5 percent in the same time period.<\/p>\n
Despite the rise among the young, doctors pointed out that the overwhelming majority of colon cancer cases still occur in people over 50.<\/p>\n
– More advanced cancers –<\/p>\n
Colon cancer often begins as a polyp, or a growth, inside the colon or rectum.<\/p>\n
The main tool for prevention is a colonoscopy, which allows doctors to find and remove these polyps.<\/p>\n
But often, symptoms only appear after the cancer has begun to grow, and these signs — such as rectal bleeding, constipation or diarrhea that lasts more than a few days — can be mistaken for other ailments.<\/p>\n
Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the United States, with more than 132,000 new cases in 2015.<\/p>\n
It was also the second-leading cause of cancer death, after lung cancer.<\/p>\n
Sutton’s study found that by the time of diagnosis, younger cancer patients tended to have more advanced cancers than older patients.<\/p>\n
Nearly 31 percent of younger patients were diagnosed at stage three, compared to 25.1 percent of older patients.<\/p>\n
One-quarter of patients under 50 were diagnosed at stage four, compared to 18.2 percent of older patients.<\/p>\n
Colon cancer in younger patients also occurred more frequently among non-white patients than in Caucasians.<\/p>\n
The US National Cancer Database provided the data from 2004 to 2013, and it echoes a trend found in a previous study about five years ago.<\/p>\n
“Between the time of the previous research and our study, we still have not adequately addressed the risk of colorectal cancer in people under the age of 50,” Sutton said.<\/p>\n
“It’s critical that we reverse this trend so that we are able to reduce, and hopefully eliminate it in all populations, regardless of age.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Colon cancer among people under 50 is on the rise, and tumors are often diagnosed at an advanced stage, according to research presented Tuesday. The findings were based on a US study of more than a million people over the course of 10 years. They were presented during Digestive Disease Week, a medical conference in Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/i\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}