More Men and Women Under 50 are Diagnosed with Colon Cancer

Young colorectal patients were more likely to be diagnosed with the more advanced regional or distant disease, which are both more unsafe than localized disease, the study found. Among CRC patients with distant metastasis, younger patients were more likely to receive surgical therapy for their primary tumor (72% versus 63% of older patients), as well as radiation therapy (53% versus 48%).

According to cancer.gov, colon cancer is the third-most common type of non-skin cancer in women and men.

Some doctors also pointed out that screenings are expensive, invasive and may require time off work; thus younger patients might not be underlined to go through with it. National Cancer Institute cited that patients will be required to undergo fecal occult blood tests, sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy in the screenings and there are some mild discomforts and possible complications with each procedure.

The American Cancer Society calls for regular colon cancer screening – which could involve analysis of stool samples or barium enemas, in addition to the colonoscopy – to begin at age 50 in most cases, except for people who have had close relatives diagnosed with colon cancer.

Colon cancer incidence among people under 50 is escalating, researchers have recently determined. “Colon cancer has traditionally been thought of as a disease of the elderly”, says lead author Samantha Hendren.

Screening for colorectal cancer is recommended starting at age 50.

The cancers found in younger patients tend to be discovered only after patients develop symptoms like anemia, bloody bowels or colon blockages. “This is already recommended, but we don’t think this is happening consistently, and this is something we need to optimize”. The study included 258,024 patients diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. “There may be an effect of our environment that could be contributing to the increase”.

“We found that the sensitivity for cancer was somewhat higher in the first year, and that’s not surprising”, study author, Dr. Douglas Corley said reported by Medical Xpress.

Generally, colorectal cancer determinants consist in: family history and genetic predispositions, inflammatory diseases affecting the colon (such as Crohn’s disease), lack of physical activity, obesity, diabetes, unhealthy diets (based on high intake of fat and low intake of fiber), drinking and smoking.

In order to achieve their findings, researchers tracked annual fecal blood tests performed on almost 325,000 patients over the course of four years. That is because they are 30 percent more likely to have tumors that metastasized to their lymph nodes and 50 percent more likely to have cancer that spread to other organs.

For patients under 50, about 68 percent survived five years, while about 67 percent of the patients 50 and older survived five years, she said.

Doctors should be screening for colon cancer far earlier than they do now, according to a new study.