Newly released American Cancer Society guidelines mean that some Americans will now get their first screening for colorectal cancer at age 45, instead of at 50, as previously prescribed.
The new guidelines reflect what experts are calling a "disturbing" and as yet unexplained trend: the sharp increase in deaths and the growing risk of developing colorectal cancer among not only those in their mid-40s but those in their 20 and 30s, as well.
Colorectal cancer, which includes both colon and rectal cancers, is still most frequently diagnosed in adults over 65. What's more, older adults still make up, by far, the bulk of the deaths from this second-leading cause of all U.S. cancer fatalities.
The increase in people developing cancer at a younger age made headlines last year with the release of research by the ACS' Journal of the National Cancer Institute, which showed that those born around 1990 have double the risk of colon cancer and quadruple the risk of rectal cancer, compared with people born around 1950, who have the lowest risk.
Robin Mendelsohn, M.D., codirector of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s three-month-old Center for Young Onset Colorectal Cancer, says that her hospital has tracked over 4,000 cases of colon and rectal cancers in those under 50 in the past 10 years. She also says no one knows what’s causing this increase.
“We know there’s been this stark increase in diagnosis of [this] cancer in those under 50, and we’ve seen it steadily rise, and we don’t know why it’s happening and don’t fully understand characteristics of this group.” There aren’t, for instance, any obvious lifestyle traits that explain the spike (though she speculates that something related to lifestyle and environment is likely at play).