Gut toxins and 50,000 deaths: The truth behind the rise in colon cancer and the signs to look for

Young people are often diagnosed with more advanced cancers due to delays in detection.

“If you’re 39 and you’re having these symptoms, you’re not thinking, ‘I have colon cancer,’” Dr, Sarama, chief of colorectal surgery at UC San Diego said. “You’re thinking, ‘I ate something. I’m working too hard.’ If you’re tired and you’re stressed out, you’re thinking, ‘It’ll go away.’ People are presenting later because they’re just not attributing their symptoms to something that could be serious.”

But, doctors have also singled out other contributing factors, including excess body weight, a sedentary lifestyle, smoking, a high intake of red or processed meat, and other environmental factors.

People may reduce their risk of colorectal cancer by limiting their high rate of alcohol consuption, keeping a healthy diet and increasing their physical activity.

Srennings also play an important role in finding any precancerous polyps before they turn into cancer.

Federal health officials say people should get screened starting at age 45, although there are questions about whether it should be lowered to 40. Those with a family history of colorectal cancer may need to get checked even earlier. Although, screening comes with its own risk as some medical machines have been linked to higher cancer rates.

There are some disparities to be aware of – Black Americans are 15 percent more likely to develop colorectal cancer and 35 percent more likely to die from it than white Americans.

“We don’t understand a lot about the causes, the biology, or how to prevent early onset of the disease,” Phil Daschner, a program director in NCI’s Division of Cancer Biology said, “And that’s important to learn more about because it may affect [approaches for] the treatment and survivorship of early-onset colon cancer.”