December 11, 2024

expert reaction to study on rates of colorectal cancers in young and older adults

A study published in The Lancet Oncology looks at colorectal cancer incidence in young and older adults. 

Dr Sarah Bailey, NIHR Advanced Fellow, University of Exeter Medical School, said:

“I’d agree that this high-quality study confirms that colorectal cancer rates are rising in younger adults in many countries. The reasons for this are not fully understood, but it is clear that we need to be searching for the underlying causes. In terms of the implications in the real world, approaches to deal with the rising rates in younger adults in England will need careful consideration. Earlier diagnosis strategies for colorectal cancer, such as screening programmes and investigation of symptomatic patients in primary care, tend to target people aged 50 and over. That is because this is the age range in which most new cases are diagnosed. As rates in younger adults increase, we will need to explore how we can expand our strategies to capture cases early in this group too.”

The following comment was provided by the Pilot Science Media Centre for Ireland

Dr David Robert Grimes, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, said:

“Comparing international data about cancer rates is a difficult undertaking, as there is considerable variation in data quality and availability. The researchers found that early onset colorectal cancer rates appear to be increasing in 27 of the 50 territories analysed, but this study cannot tell us why this might be, nor why this isn’t consistent for all countries. It is accordingly crucial that we do not over interpret such findings; while the headline might seem worrying in isolation, it could also mean that screening and improved detection are allowing us to catch cancers earlier. This finding is interesting, but we have to resist the urge to jump to conclusions, especially with conflicting and complicated data.”

‘Colorectal cancer incidence trends in younger versus older adults: an analysis of population-based cancer registry data’ by Sung et. al was published in The Lancet Oncology at 23:30 UK time Wednesday 11th December 2024. 

DOI: 10.1016/S1470-2045(24)00600-4

Declared interests

Dr Sarah Bailey: No interests

No reply to the request for DOIs was received.