“I was in complete shock,” said Dayton resident Jessica Fox. She had no symptoms until about 10 days before her diagnosis.
Fox had a healthy lifestyle and had no known family history of colorectal cancer, but when she learned her stage IV cancer had spread to her liver, she had to undergo emergency surgery. Ta.
“I was told that if I didn't start treatment right away, I had less than six months to live,” Fox said.
Fox has been undergoing ongoing chemotherapy since January 2023.
“Certainly it seems like we need to push the age of testing even younger,” Fox said.
Dr. Minia Herran, a surgical oncologist at Kettering Health, said that overall colorectal cancer rates are decreasing due to increased use of colonoscopies and other screening methods.
However, doctors said the number of patients under the age of 55 is increasing by about 2% to 3% each year. According to the American Cancer Society, this has been happening since the mid-1990s.
“This is a real increase in the number of younger patients,” Herran said. “It's something we haven't seen in the past. We're seeing more people in their 40s and early 50s with colorectal cancer, so this is a really big problem.”
Herran said it is important to diagnose colorectal cancer in its early stages.
“Colorectal cancer is highly treatable and survivable, but it depends on the stage at which it is discovered,” Herran says.
The earlier colorectal cancer is detected, the more likely it is to be cured, she said.
“Colon cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States and the third most commonly diagnosed cancer,” says Piyush Patel, medical oncologist and hematologist at Premier Blood Cancer Center. says Dr.
According to the World Health Organization, colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and this phenomenon is not unique to the United States. Incidence rates were highest in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and mortality rates were highest in Eastern Europe.
Herran said doctors suspect that patients may be affected by a diet high in processed foods and red meat, but low in fiber and vegetables. A sedentary lifestyle, obesity and diabetes can also increase the risk of colorectal cancer, she said.
According to the American Cancer Society, African Americans are about 20% more likely to get colorectal cancer and about 40% more likely to die from colorectal cancer than most other groups.
Family history and conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease can be other risk factors, Herran said.
“We don't have a 100% answer as to why we're seeing so many younger patients now,” Herran said.
Studies on gut health, including the microbiome, or gut biome, the microorganisms that live in the digestive tract, have shown that antibiotics can alter the biome within the gastrointestinal tract, Herran said.
“Good bacteria can be lost and bad bacteria can overgrow,” Herran says. She suggested further research could be done into the gut biome and the bacteria that people naturally have in their colons.
Patients like Fox are calling for more research to be done in general about why young people are diagnosed with colorectal cancer, she said.
Fox recently traveled to Washington, D.C., with the advocacy group Fight Colorectal Cancer (also known as Fight CRC) to advocate for more funding for research and testing and to encourage members of Congress to support colorectal cancer. He invited them to join the group.
“When they get diagnosed, they're diagnosed with a more advanced stage of the disease, just like I was,” Fox said. “I think there needs to be a lot of research into why this is happening because more and more young people are being diagnosed with more serious illnesses.”
In terms of numbers
According to the World Health Organization, it is estimated that in 2020, there were more than 1.9 million new cases of colorectal cancer and more than 930,000 deaths from colorectal cancer worldwide.
According to WHO, by 2040, the burden of colorectal cancer will increase to 3.2 million new cases (63% increase) and 1.6 million deaths (73% increase) annually worldwide.
In the United States, African Americans are about 20% more likely to get colorectal cancer and about 40% more likely to die from colorectal cancer than most other groups.
The American Cancer Society estimates of the number of colorectal cancers in the United States in 2024 are as follows:
● Approximately 106,590 new cases of colon cancer (54,210 men and 52,380 women)
● Approximately 46,220 new cases of rectal cancer (27,330 men, 18,890 women)
From 2011 to 2019, the incidence decreased by approximately 1% annually, primarily among older adults. In people younger than 55 years, incidence has increased by 1% to 2% per year since the mid-1990s.
