Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified four important signs and symptoms that indicate an elevated risk of early-onset colorectal cancer in adults under 50 years of age.
These red flags may be key to earlier detection and diagnosis of this cancer among younger adults, the number of which has nearly doubled in recent years.
The symptoms that indicate greater risk in people under 50, according to the study, are abdominal pain, rectal bleeding, diarrhea, and iron deficiency anemia. The researchers found that having just one of these symptoms nearly doubled the risk, having two symptoms increased the risk by more than 3.5 times, and having three or more increased the risk by more than 6.5 times.
Principal investigator Yin Cao, an associate professor of surgery in the Division of Public Health Sciences and a research fellow at the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, has noted the importance of creating awareness among primary care physicians, gastroenterologists, and emergency physicians.
The study found that some young adults had symptoms for up to two years before their diagnosis, which may be part of the reason many of these patients younger people had more advanced disease at diagnosis than is normally seen in older people who are screened regularly.
People born in 1990 have twice the risk of cancer colon and four times the risk of rectal cancer compared with young adults born in 1950. That trend has led the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, the American Gastroenterological Association, and other professional societies to prioritize research in the identification of risk factors and the improvement of early detection.
In 2021, the US Preventive Services Task Force lowered the recommended age for colorectal cancer screening from 50 to 45 years. Therefore, it is essential that young adults are aware of and act on these potentially very revealing signs and symptoms, especially since people under the age of 50 are considered to be low risk and are not routinely screened. .
Cao has highlighted that two symptoms in particular, rectal bleeding and iron deficiency anemia, point to the need for timely endoscopy and follow-up.
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