Doctors are worried. An American Cancer Society report released Wednesday, Jan. 17, warns of the scale of colon and rectal cancers among young adults. The results, which report data taken from the American population, indicate that colorectal cancer is now the deadliest cancer in men under 50. It reaches second place among women under 50, behind breasts. However, about fifty years ago, it ranked only fourth as the leading cause of cancer death among men and women under 50.
Usually, cancers affect people over the age of 50. In France, for example, nearly 2 out of 3 cancers occur in individuals aged 75 or older. On the other hand, the American report shows that the share of 50-64 year olds among those newly diagnosed has increased, from 25% in 1995 to 30% today.
Interviewed by NBC News, oncology doctor Kimmie Ng confirms that these results converge with her observations on patients. She explains: “For several decades we have noticed that the patients who come to our clinic seem increasingly younger.” Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer of the American Cancer Society, also laments the fact that young adults tend to be diagnosed in later stages, when the disease is more aggressive. More present and more vivid, colorectal cancer is often in young people “harder to treat”In his opinion.
How to explain it?
At the moment, doctors have not yet been able to find the reasons for this increasing incidence of colorectal cancer in young adults. Various hypotheses have been put forward, establishing a correlation between this increase and those in the rate of obesity and sedentary behavior. But seeing her patients, Dr. Kimmie Ng remains skeptical, saying that “he rarely fits this profile.” She adds: “Many of them are triathletes and marathon runners, very healthy people.”
For her what should be suspected is more a combination of environmental factors. Due to their difficult to measure impact on our immune system, these factors could increase susceptibility to cancer from an early age.
In addition to the hard test represented by the fight against cancer itself, it has the particularity of occurring, among the youngest, at crucial moments of life. Young adults are overall less covered by health insurance than those over 65 and are more likely to have to juggle family and professional careers. Dr. Dahut also supports this “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 particularly the experience of Sierra Fuller, 33, who tells NBC News how the discovery of her stage 3 colorectal cancer caused a shock in 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. About a year later, Sierra Fuller is cancer-free but requires regular checkups and blood tests. She’s better, but “he will always have this worry” see the disease reappear.
2024-01-19 21:00:00
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