Colorectal cancer for the young
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Colorectal cancer is still considerably more common among those over 50 than those under it. But a study indicates new cases are becoming more common among the younger people.
At the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, researchers saw this in national data on more than 393,000 patients from 1975 to 2010.
Researcher George Chang says the rate of new cases rose for patients ages 20 to 49, with the biggest increase – about 2 percent a year – for 20- to-34-year-olds:
“Colorectal cancer is an important problem even among individuals who are under the standard screening age of 50 years old.”
The study in the journal JAMA Surgery was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Learn more at healthfinder.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.
Last revised: November 21, 2014