A larger percentage of younger people are being diagnosed with colorectal cancer, according to a new report released Wednesday, and researchers say they don’t know why.
The American Cancer Society said Wednesday that about 1 in 5 new colon and rectal cancers are among those in their mid-50s and younger. The proportion of these types of cancers among adults younger than 55 increased from 11 percent in 1995 to 20 percent in 2019, it found.
Researchers noted that there appears to be a broader shift to more diagnoses of advanced stages of cancer.
The trend, they wrote, is “shifting to younger individuals as cohorts born in the last one half of the 20th century who have elevated risk age; one in five new cases now occur in individuals in their early 50s or younger,” according to a report published in the American Cancer Society Journals….