Doctors are worried. A report from the American Cancer Society was published on Wednesday, January 17, warning of the scale of colon and rectal cancer numbers among young adults. The results, which report data from the American population, indicate that colorectal cancer is now the deadliest cancer in men under the age of 50. It ranks second to the breast in women under the age of 50. However, about fifty years ago, it was only the fourth leading cause of cancer death among men and women under the age of 50.
Generally, cancer affects people above 50 years of age more. For example, in France, about 2 out of 3 cancers occur in persons 75 and older. On the other hand, the American report shows that the share of newly diagnosed people aged 50-64 has increased, from 25% in 1995 to 30% today.
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Interviewed by NBC News, cancer doctor Kimi Ng confirms that these results coincide with her own observations with patients. She explains: “For decades now, we’ve noticed that patients coming into our clinic look younger and younger.” Dr. William Dahut, scientific director of the American Cancer Society, also laments that younger adults are diagnosed at a later stage, where the disease is more aggressive. More present and more vivid in young people, colorectal cancer is more frequent “More difficult to treat”According to him.
How to explain it?
Currently, doctors are still unable to find the reasons for this increased incidence of colorectal cancer in young adults. Several hypotheses have been put forward establishing a correlation between this increase and obesity rates and sedentary behaviors. But seeing his patients, Dr. Kimi Ng remains skeptical, indicating that they “Rarely fits this profile”. She adds: “Many of them are triathletes and marathon runners, very healthy people.”
For him, it is more a combination of environmental factors that should be suspected. Because of their difficult to measure effects on our immune system, these factors can increase susceptibility to cancer from an early age.
In addition to the ordeal presented by the fight against cancer, it has the characteristic of occurring among the youngest at critical moments in life. Young adults are covered by less health insurance overall than those over 65 and are more likely to juggle family and business careers. Such an argument also Dr “Men and women diagnosed at a younger age have a longer life expectancy and are therefore at greater risk of treatment-related side effects, such as second cancers.”
This is especially the experience of Sierra Fuller, 33, who tells NBC News how her discovery of stage 3 colorectal cancer rocked her life and the lives of those close to her. She and her husband were planning a future with a child, but the news turned everything upside down. Almost a year later, Sierra Fuller is cancer free but needs regular checkups and blood tests. She is better, but “There will always be this concern” To see the disease reappear.
