More and more men under the age of 50 are developing colon cancer. Women do not suffer from this, MedUni Vienna reported on Thursday from a current study. It was previously believed that improved screening methods were responsible for the increase.
“It was therefore assumed that colon cancer is not more common in younger people, but is simply diagnosed more often,” reports Monika Ferlitsch from MedUni’s clinical department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. She led the study, which has now provided evidence for the first time of an actual increase in colon cancer or its precursors in men under 50. For this purpose, the results of 296,170 colonoscopies in Austria, performed between 2008 and 2018 in symptom-free women (150,813) and men (145,357), were analyzed. The average age of the patients was 60 years. 3.8 percent of the data came from people under the age of 50.
Lack of exercise and unhealthy diet
Women are not affected by this development. The incidence of colon cancer and its precursors in men between 45 and 49 years is comparable to that in women ten years older. Ferlitsch cited lack of exercise, unhealthy diet, obesity and diabetes as possible causes for the increase in colon cancer among younger men. “The facts we have gathered cannot be attributed to the increasing accuracy of diagnostics. These are clear figures that we are dealing with in prevention,” the researcher said in a press release.
About one in seventeen people in Austria will develop a carcinoma of the colon or rectum during their lifetime. Cancer is fatal for more than half of those affected. Signs can sometimes include cramping abdominal pain, a frequent urge to defecate, constant fatigue or a palpable hardening in the abdomen, but the cancer can also remain asymptomatic for years (see video above).
The National Cancer Screening Commission recommends that colon cancer screening be carried out from the age of 45 and not from the age of 50, as is currently the case. These include colonoscopy and blood stool testing. The research results have been published in “JAMA Network Open”.
Source: Krone
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