More colon cancer cases found in younger people, new report shows

[Zorro]

Overall cases of colon and rectal cancer are down, but experts are worried that the proportion of cases is shifting to younger people with more advanced disease

The burden of colorectal cancer in the United States is shifting to younger adults, and more patients are being diagnosed with later stage disease, according to a concerning new report from the American Cancer Society.

One in 5 new cases of colorectal cancer in the United States occur in people younger than 55 — about twice the rate in 1995, when 11 percent of cases were in this age group. In another alarming shift, 60 percent of patients are being diagnosed with an advanced stage of the disease, up from 52 percent in the mid-2000s.

The reasons behind the trends aren’t fully understood, but the findings suggest that steady progress to reduce the incidence of colon cancer through screening during the past few decades is losing momentum.

“There is a bit of a worrisome trend,” said Paul Oberstein, a medical oncologist at the NYU Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center who was not involved in the study. “Something is clearly different among the young, the under 50 population, that does suggest, although it’s small, that the number of cancers are going up.”

https://wapo.st/3SEATCQ

[multigraincracker]

1. Did they compare it with

Western Europe countries that have a better record of regulating food additives?

[slightlv]

4. I am so right there with you on your question, multi!

Not only just food additives, but which food additives are added to which other food additives. Which foods are GMO and which aren't. I know just bring up GMO is controversial, but I do have concerns when we start monkeying around with the genetic properties of something. To me, it brings up the law of unintended consequences.

Here, it's the law of unintended consequences meeting the law of profits over everything else be damned. We've seen way too many times when corporations know something is harmful but they attempt to keep it secret for as long as possible just to keep that profit margin rolling in.

BTW... I come by this opinion honestly. Living in KS, my dad and I drove by a field filled to the gills with birds. Blackbirds, of some sort, mostly. We were dodging them as many were nearly hitting our windshield. It's not that the seed they were eating was suppose to be inebriating, but they were acting as though they were drunk. Some were simply falling out of the sky and "splat" on the road. These were Roundup fields. So much of our food is produced from Roundup fields. To me, cancers, obesity, and many other diseases could be linked to Roundup, etc. But their contracts are so ironclad and decisive in what they allow and don't allow...

For example, the one thing agriculture has practiced since time immemorial has been the holding back of seeds from one season to the next for planting. Roundup does not allow this practice any longer. It is a crime to hold back seeds from a crop that has been treated with Roundup. This is an agricultural farce. It is bad practice. It puts our future food production at risk. And, to a practicing pagan farmer, it can be a religious issue, as it breaks the circle of life. (but then, most pagan farmers I know are organic growers, anyway!)

Corporate agriculture are all about profits. Risks to us be damned.

[Igel]

6. Don't use Roundup-ready seeds.

Easy enough to do. They're easily available, and cheaper to sow per acre, too.

Then you can take some of your crop and use it as seed the following year. (Not that most did so in my lifetime and for over a decade before because they still want hybrids which, even if they're not under restrictions any more still don't necessarily breed true and give the uniform crop that makes for higher sale prices.)

[JohnSJ]

2. Why? A critical question.

[friend of a friend]

3. Everyone should get one every 5 years, 3 years if a blood relative has gotten colon cancer.

I get one every 3 years because my maternal grandmother, mother, and sister all died before the age of 60 from colon cancer

[twodogsbarking]

5. I am guessing that non-cancerous digestive problems are on the increase too.

[LisaM]

7. Lack of exercise?

My partner's niece is 18 and she is online constantly and won't even take a walk in the evening, much less bike and swim and do the things we did just as a matter of course when we were 18. My partner is terrified for her. He thinks she's shortening her life.

[appalachiablue]

8. This would be good in the Health section. I can X-Post it if you like.

[NickB79]

9. Obesity

40% of all Americans are now obese. That number will hit 50% by 2030. In addition, another 30% of Americans are "only" overweight.

Obesity is clearly associated with an increase in colorectal cancer.

https://www.cancer.org/latest-news/study-obesity-linked-to-colorectal-cancer-in-young-women.html

Health experts have long known that obesity is a risk factor for colorectal cancer, but previous studies looked at ages 50 and older. The new research is among the first to analyze possible causes of early-onset colorectal cancer that occurs among younger patients – those below age 50. “We had hypothesized that obesity was associated with early-onset colorectal cancer, but we were struck by the strength of the association,” said co-senior author, Yin Cao, an assistant professor at Washington University Medical School.

The study found that women ages 20 to 49 who were considered overweight or obese based on BMI had up to twice the risk of developing early onset colorectal cancer before age 50, compared with women who reported the lowest BMIs. The study defined normal weight as BMI between 18.5 and 24.9, overweight as BMI between 25 and 29.9, and obese as BMI over 30.

In addition to current BMI, the amount of weight gained since age 18 was also analyzed and was found to be linked to a higher risk of colorectal cancer before age 50. Women with a BMI of 23 or higher at age 18 who reported a weight gain of 44 pounds or more had the highest risk of early-onset colorectal cancer compared with other women in the study.

And to think conservatives protested when Michelle Obama tried to improve school lunch programs