Colorectal Cancer Increasing In Young Adults

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090608072018.htm

ScienceDaily (June 8, 2009) — A new study finds that in sharp contrast to the overall declining rates of colorectal cancer in the United States, incidence rates among adults younger than age 50 years are increasing. The authors theorize that these increases may be related to rising rates of obesity and changes in dietary patterns, including increased consumption of fast food. The study, which appears in the June 2009 issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, says further studies are necessary to elucidate causes for this trend and to identify potential prevention and early detection strategies.
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The researchers address several possibilities for the rise, including rising rates of obesity, which is a major risk factor for colorectal cancer. Dietary factors may also come into play. The researchers note that between the late 1970s and the mid-1990s, fast-food consumption in the United States increased 5-fold among children and 3-fold among adults. A diet high in fast food is associated with both greater meat consumption and reduced milk consumption. Increased consumption of red and processed meat has been shown to increase risk of cancers of the distal colon and rectum, while milk and calcium consumption have shown a protective effect against the subsites in which the rise in incidence was most prominent. They say it is plausible that the emergence of unfavorable dietary patterns in children and young adults over the past three decades may have contributed to the increase in CRC among young adults observed in the study.