Colorectal cancer being diagnosed in younger Americans: research

People under 55 make up 20 percent of new diagnoses.

by Chia-Yi Hou | Mar. 01, 2023

a doctor or nurse holding the hands of a female middle aged patient

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Colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the U.S.

A report finds that people under the age of 55 are increasingly getting diagnosed with this type of cancer.

The proportion of colorectal cancer cases that are at the advanced stage has also increased in the past decade.

The rate of colorectal cancer diagnosis in people under the age of 55 has doubled from 1995 to 2019, according to a report from the American Cancer Society.

People under the age of 55 were diagnosed with colorectal cancer (CRC) at a rate of 20 percent of all CRC cases in 2019, up from 11 percent in 1995. In addition, the proportion of diagnoses that are at the advanced stage of CRC has increased from 52 percent in the mid-2000s to 60 percent in 2019.

The report also notes that CRC rates in men were a third higher than in women from 2015 to 2019. Death rates from CRC have increased steadily since 2005 by 1 percent per year in people under the age of 50 and 0.6 percent per year in people ages 50 to 54.

Overall, colorectal cancer is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer in the U.S. at about 36 diagnoses per 100,000 people, according to the U.S. Cancer Statistics.

“We know rates are increasing in young people, but it’s alarming to see how rapidly the whole patient population is shifting younger, despite shrinking numbers in the overall population,” said Rebecca Siegel, the senior scientific director of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the report, in a press release.

“The trend toward more advanced disease in people of all ages is also surprising and should motivate everyone 45 and older to get screened.”

In 2023, the society estimates there will be more than 153,000 new diagnoses of colorectal cancer and 52,000 deaths. That’s significantly higher than 2019 numbers, when there were 142,462 diagnoses and 51,896 deaths, according to the U.S. Cancer Statistics.