About Early Onset CRC

While overall colorectal cancer (CRC) cases have declined since the mid-1980s, diagnoses are rising in people under the age of 50. CRC in the population younger than 50 years is defined as early-age onset or early-onset CRC. Adults born around 1990 compared with those born around 1950, double their risk of colon cancer and quadruple their risk of rectal cancer; 11% of colon cancers and 23% of rectal cancers will occur in young individuals (<50 years) by 2030.^1,2 However, the incidence of CRC worldwide has increased consistently in every age group of adults 20 to 54 years over the last two decades without an obvious cause.³

1. Siegel RL, Fedewa SA, Anderson WF, et al. Colorectal cancer incidence patterns in the United States, 1974–2013. J Natl Cancer Inst 2017; 109: 8.
2. Bailey CE, Hu CY, You YN, et al. Increasing disparities in the age-related incidences of colon and rectal cancers in the United States, 1975–2010. JAMA Surg 2015; 150: 17–22
3. Chang SH, Patel N, Du M, Liang PS. Trends in early-onset vs late-onset colorectal cancer incidence by race/ethnicity in the United States cancer statistics database. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2021; published online July 26. https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.cgh.2021.07.035.