Colon cancer among people younger than 55 is on the rise in America, according to a study released Wednesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study, spearheaded by lead researcher Rebecca Siegel of the American Cancer Society, analyzed the colorectal cancer mortality rates among U.S. adults between the ages of 20 and 54 from 1970 to 2014.
"Colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence has been increasing in the United States among adults younger than 55 years since at least the mid-1990s, with the increase confined to white men and women and most rapid for metastatic disease," Siegel noted in the study.
"Although CRC mortality is declining overall, trends for all ages combined mask patterns in young adults, which have not been comprehensively examined."
Based on the study, the mortality rate for whites has been climbing since 2004 after decades of decline while other races have seen a combined drop in mortality rates over recent years.
The Washington Post noted that, according to Siegel, these racial patterns were not consistent with major risk factors that could lead to colorectal cancer which are on the rise among all races and should be resulting in an increased rate of colon cancer among all races.
Siegel told The American Cancer Society that "trends in young people are a bellwether for the future disease burden."
She said the findings were sobering, adding that "educational campaigns are needed to alert clinicians and the general public about this increase to help reduce delays in diagnosis, which are so prevalent in young people, but also to encourage healthier eating and more active lifestyles to try to reverse this trend."
In a separate study, the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) noted that "young age is believed to be a risk factor for hereditary or familial non-polyposis colorectal cancer."
Researchers who analyzed frequency, phenotype and familial cancer risk of 82 subjects with colorectal cancer under 55 years of age found that "diagnosis of colorectal cancer under 55 years of age is associated with a high frequency of hereditary or familial cases."
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