“Colorectal cancer is on the rise among young people. Now it is the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. for those under 50, according to a new analysis.
More than 1.2 million people under age 50 died of cancer in the U.S. from 1990 through 2023, American Cancer Society researchers reported Thursday.
Some 3,905 people ages 20 to 49 died of colorectal cancer in 2023, according to Cancer Society statistics, compared with 3,809 for breast cancer and 2,086 for brain and other nervous system cancers.
"This is absolutely disconcerting," said Dr. Madappa Kundranda, division chief of cancer medicine at Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center in Phoenix, who wasn't involved in the research.
Cancer has long been thought of as a disease of aging. Rising rates of some cancers among younger people, however, have upended the longtime stereotype, worrying health authorities and doctors and triggering research into possible causes and solutions.
As colorectal cancer among younger people has emerged as a bigger threat, medical groups have lowered the recommended age for colonoscopies that can detect the disease while there are good odds for effective treatment.
Yet not enough people under 50 are getting the screenings, doctors said, prompting calls for a redoubling of efforts to educate doctors and nurses about the need to talk with patients.
"My kids, for their 21st birthday, they're going to get a colonoscopy," said Josh Herting, of Sudbury, Mass., who was diagnosed with advanced colorectal cancer 12 years ago at the age of 34.
The cancer had been in his body for eight years, doctors told Herting, whose father was diagnosed in his 50s with colorectal cancer, though genetic testing didn't show a family tie. Herting had surgery to remove part of his colon and six months of chemotherapy. Now 46, he has been cancer free since 2020, and gets colonoscopies every three years.
Colorectal cancer diagnoses have been rising for many years in young adults, and the disease was already the No. 1 cause of cancer death for men. Now it tops the list for men and women combined, said Dr. Ahmedin Jemal, the Cancer Society's senior vice president for surveillance, prevention and health services research.
The increase casts a dark cloud on an improving cancer landscape. About 70% of people survived their cancers for at least five years after their diagnosis from 2015 through 2021, according to a separate analysis by the Cancer Society.
The gains are a result of better drugs and improved detection, according to the Cancer Society. "We are making progress, but we have a long way to go," said Jemal, the senior author of the analysis, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
In the U.S., the cancer death rate overall for people under 50 fell 44% between 1990 and 2023. Deaths from lung, breast and other major cancers fell.
Colorectal cancer deaths have fallen among the U.S. population overall, primarily due to increased screening among older people. It was the fifth leading cause of cancer death for people under 50 in 1990. Deaths from the disease in this age group have risen annually by 1.1% since 2005.
That it is now the top cancer killer for younger people means they are being diagnosed at an advanced stage, said Dr. Jeffrey Meyerhardt, co-director of the Colon and Rectal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, who wasn't involved in the research. "If they're presenting with later-stage disease it becomes harder to render them disease-free," he said.
Three out of four colorectal cancer patients under 50 are diagnosed at an advanced stage, according to the new analysis. Researchers have associated several risk factors with the rise in colorectal cancer cases, including obesity, physical inactivity and diets heavy in ultraprocessed food.” [1]
1. U.S. News: Colorectal Cancer Risk Is Rising --- Disease is now leading cause of cancer death among those under 50. McKay, Betsy. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 23 Jan 2026: A2.
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