Many Years Young: More younger people getting colorectal cancer

(Baltimore Sun) While overall rates of colorectal cancer have been dropping since the 1980s, cases in people under age 50 have been slowly, but steadily rising, research has found. The biggest increases come among people in their 40s?

While younger patients still make up a sliver of people who get the cancer, researchers and scientists are paying more attention before the problem worsens? Nobody really knows why the cancer is increasing in younger people. Doctors believe lifestyle ? including bad eating habits, lack of exercise and obesity ? is part of the problem. Some of the answer probably also lies in genetics and environmental factors, doctors said. Better screening and testing have helped over time to curb the disease, which is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer. Doctors are able to detect and remove polyps, sac-like growths on the colon wall, before they develop into cancer. But guidelines generally call for screening people older than 50 and suggest younger people get tested only if they are showing signs of cancer and have a family history.

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Source: http://www.manyyearsyoung.com/2012/07/more-younger-people-getting-colorectal.html

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