By Josh Grega
Local-stage colorectal cancer diagnoses increased dramatically from 2019 to 2022 in adults between the ages of 45 and 49, and colonoscopy screening also spiked, according to new studies published in August.
A new study led by the American Cancer Society (ACS) and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) discovered this change following a “stable 15-year trend,” according to an August 4 ACS press release.
The study analyzed colorectal cancer diagnoses from 2004 to 2022 among adults between the ages of 20 and 54 years in the 21 geographic areas of the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program. Cases were organized by age, cancer location, and diagnosis stage. Its incidence rates were adjusted for delays in case reporting and age-standardized to the 2000 U.S. standard population, according to the press release.
Rising diagnoses among the 45-49 year cohort between 2019 and 2022 included a 50% relative growth in diagnoses between 2021 and 2022, from 11.7 to 17.5 cases per 100,000. This age range’s regular 1.1% annual increase in diagnoses skyrocketed to 12% per year between 2019 and 2022, largely due to the detection of local-stage tumors. The study found that local-stage tumors for colon cancer increased annually by 18.8% and by 25.1% for rectal cancer, according to the press release. (RELATED: Deion Sanders Says He Never Lost His Faith In Battle Against Bladder Cancer)
The ACS’s study also found that colorectal cancer incidence increased consistently by 1.6% annually since 2004 among adults between 2o and 39-years-old, and by 2-2.6% per year since 2012 among the age cohorts of 40-44 and 50-54. Rates of localized disease for those 20 to 39-years-old remained stable, and rates among those in the age ranges of 40-44 and 50-54 had a slower increase of 2.5-3.1% annually beginning in 2016 to 2017, and were confined to rectal tumors. Advanced-stage colorectal cancer continued growing by 1.7-2.9% per year since 2004 among adults under 45-years-old and even faster in the past decade for those between ages 45 and 54, the press release stated.
An ACS associate scientist and the study’s lead author, Elizabeth Schafer, MPH, remarked that the increase in local cases among the 45 to 49 cohort is “promising.” She explained that this rise in diagnoses is “likely due to first-time screening in the wake of new recommendations for younger average-risk adults to begin testing for colorectal cancer earlier.”
The ACS lowered the recommended age for starting colorectal cancer screening from 50 to 45 years old in 2018. The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) did the same in 2021. (REALTED: REPORT: Hulk Hogan Privately Battled Cancer Before His Death)
A separate ACS study also recently published by JAMA found that colorectal cancer screenings among U.S. adults between 45 and 49-years-old increased by 62% from 2019 t0 2023. Colonoscopy screenings in this cohort increased by 43% and stool-based testing spiked more than 5-fold, the press release noted.
Lead author of that study, ACS associate scientist Jessica Star, MPH, MA, said it was “thrilling to see the increase in colorectal cancer screening among younger adults” and that it “likely ties into rises in earlier stage diagnosis as noted in the other ACS led paper.”
“However we still have a long way to go,” she said. “Screening for colorectal cancer in ages 45-49 remains suboptimal and has not increased equitably by both educational attainment and insurance status.”
