For years, colon cancer has been on the rise in younger people for unclear reasons. While cancer deaths in the U.S. are falling overall, a new report from the American Cancer Society highlights how the increase in colon cancer, as well as some other cancers, is threatening to buck that trend.
In the late 1990s, colorectal cancer was the fourth-leading cause of cancer deaths in men and women under 50. But new data shows that it is now the top cause of cancer death in men under 50 and second to only breast cancer for women in the same age group.
“Cancer patients are increasingly shifting from older to middle‐aged individuals who have many more years of life expectancy, and thus, opportunity to experience the late effects of treatment, including subsequent cancers,” the study authors wrote.
“The continuous sharp increase in colorectal cancer in younger Americans in alarming,” said senior study author Dr. Ahmedin Jemal, senior vice president of surveillance and health equity science at the American Cancer Society, in a press release. He called for an increase in screening for people between 45 and 49, especially for those with a genetic predisposition for colon cancer.
“As a nation, we’ve dropped the ball on cancer prevention as incidence continues to increase for many common cancers — like breast, prostate, and endometrial, as well as colorectal and cervical cancers in some young adults,” added Rebecca Siegel, senior scientific director, surveillance research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the report, in the press release.
The increase in colorectal cancer specifically may be due to factors such as more processed foods, higher rates of alcohol consumption and obesity, and more sedentary lifestyles, Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer for the American Cancer Society, tells TODAY.com. But there’s likely something else at play, too, that’s more elusive.
“It’s at least possible that those are the things driving this. We do see more men than women having colorectal cancer,” Dahut says. “Whether that’s again due to a poor diet or obesity and less exercise is at least a possibility.”
When Carmen Susman, 47, experienced bladder problems, a doctor suspected he might have kidney stones. An ultrasound of his kidneys unmasked an unexpected diagnosis: He had a mass on his liver. Further testing revealed it wasn’t liver cancer, but instead it was stage 4 colorectal cancer.
“When I was diagnosed, I was feeling great. My wife and I, we were exercising together every day. I had all kinds of energy. I was happy. I felt fantastic,” Susman, a stay-at-home dad from Cleveland, tells TODAY.com. “Then you get this punch in the chest saying you have cancer. I’m like, ‘How can I have cancer if I feel this good?’”
Urinary issues lead to an unexpected diagnosis
Susman noticed he’d feel the urgency to urinate but couldn’t. He visited a urologist to understand what was happening, and that doctor thought he should undergo an ultrasound to look for kidney stones. The scan revealed he had a horseshoe kidney, a condition where the two kidneys are fused at the bottom, which can be asymptomatic. More worrisome, it showed a mass on his liver, and doctors ordered an MRI to learn more.
“There was a nurse saying, ‘We see this all the time. People come in, and it could be some fatty mass there. You’re going to be fine,’” Susman says. “After the MRI, they knew. … Her demeanor completely changed, and I was just crushed walking out that day. I knew that something was wrong.”
At first, doctors thought it was liver cancer.
“It’s pretty much endgame,” he says. “For about three weeks, until I started meeting with some doctors, that’s what I was thinking — that I had about a…
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