Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer Is a 'Bigger Problem Every Year'

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, and doctors are urging people much younger than typical colorectal cancer to be aware of the symptoms. For reasons that scientists say are still unclear, the rate of colorectal cancer in people under 50 has been steadily rising for around 30 years, the New York Times reports. "It's unfortunately becoming a bigger problem every year," says Michael Cecchini at the Center for Gastrointestinal Cancers. While older patients are still more likely to be diagnosed with the disease, colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death in men under 50. Among women in the same age group, it is second only to breast cancer.

• Some shocking statistics. Cecchini says early-onset colorectal cancer cases have been going up around 2% per year since the mid-1990s. Researchers estimate that people born around 1990 have double the risk of colon cancer compared to people in the 1950s, and four times the risk of rectal cancer.

• Factors. Genetic mutations, changes in diet, and an overall decrease in physical activity may explain some of the rise in early-onset colorectal cancer, but researchers are looking into many other factors, the Times reports. Some studies have suggested imbalances in the gut microbiome, and scientists are looking into exposure to toxic chemicals, which could explain geographical disparities. "I don't think there's going to be one smoking gun that explains everything," says Caitlin Murphy, a cancer researcher at UTHealth Houston. "It's a whole bunch of things."
• One patient's story. Like many younger patients, Stefania Frost's colon cancer was at an advanced stage and had spread to her lymph nodes when it was detected four years ago, when she was 36. She tells Today that her only symptom was abdominal pain. She saw a doctor about a week after a pain developed in her right side. Frost, a second-grade teacher in Massachusetts, had 49 lymph nodes removed and underwent chemotherapy. She says she's now cancer-free and has been urging friends to get colonoscopies when they're 45, the new recommended age for screening to begin.
• What to watch out for. The CDC says warning signs for colorectal cancer include blood in the stool, abdominal pain, unexplained weight loss, and "diarrhea, constipation, or feeling that the bowel does not empty all the way."

(More colorectal cancer stories.)