United States: Younger adults with colon cancer are often diagnosed at a later stage and have more aggressive tumors. Two studies presented at the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress 2024 in San Francisco showed that young patients face long-term effects from colorectal cancer that differ from those experienced by older adults.
Risk factors of colon cancer in adults under 45 were analyzed with reference to sociodemographic and patient factors.
As reported by the Medicalxpress.com, Colon cancer is among the common cancer types and causes cancer related deaths in the United States; it is mostly diagnosed in older people.
We are also aware that in the last 20 years, rates of incidence for colon cancer has reduced in patients of 66 years and above by about 20 percent. However, the incidence rates of this cancer in the 18 to 44 years old have risen by 15% in that same time period,” Dr. Kelley Chan, MD the first author of the study, ACS Cancer Programs Clinical Scholar, fourth-year General Surgery Resident at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago.
In order to determine why the incidence of colon cancer has increased in younger adults, the demographic characteristics related to this cancer type were studied using sociodemographic parameters and tumor biology.
Using the National Cancer Data Base, a large hospital-based database that captures about three-quarters of all cancers diagnosed in the U.S., researchers compared two groups: people within 18–44 years and > 45 years recently diagnosed with colon cancer between 2015–2021.
Study findings.
A total of 318, 951 colon cancer patients were newly diagnosed in CoC accredited hospitals from 2015 to 2021. Among them, 16,974 (5.6%) were young people of the age between 18 and 44 years and 301, 977 (94.4%) were the elderly. Secondly, the results found that, among different age groups, young adults were more likely to have later stage diagnosis and more advanced and aggressive tumor types.
Besides, enrollees with colon cancer and who are young adults were more likely to be non-Hispanic Black (16.9%) than the overall proportion of non-Hispanic Black Americans in the entire population in the United States (12.1%).
These results bring into focus how this population fares regarding colon cancer and they are consistent with prior evidence that have revealed that early onset colon cancer rate is higher for non His-path Black patients as compared to other such patients.’