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By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Oct. 11, 2018 (HealthDay News) – While colon cancer rates have dropped in people 50 and older, they are on the rise for young Americans. New research suggests that enlargement of the waistline may be one of the reasons.
In the study, women aged 20 to 49 years old who were overweight or obese had up to twice as much risk of colon cancer before age 50 as women of normal weight.
"Our results really highlight the importance of maintaining a healthy weight, early in adulthood, for the prevention of colorectal cancer at an early stage," said Yin Cao, co-author of the 39; study. She is assistant professor of surgery at Washington University in St. Louis.
Although obesity has been touted as a possible reason for the rising rate of colon cancer in young people, "we were surprised by the strength of the link," Cao said in a press release issued by a university.
The study was not designed to prove the cause and effect, but only an association. But an expert in colon cancer was not surprised by the discovery.
Dr. Jeffrey Aronoff, colorectal surgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, said that obesity has long been a risk factor for colon cancer in people over 50 years old. can help reduce the chances of illness, even the youngest ones, he said.
In the new study, Cao and her colleagues collected data on more than 85,000 American women aged 25 to 44 who participated in a large ongoing study.
The researchers found that women who were heavy in their teens and who gained weight in early adulthood had an increased risk of colon cancer before the age of 50.
In fact, they estimated that about 22% of early-onset colon cancers could have been prevented if people diagnosed had retained a healthy weight. On the whole American population, this could represent thousands of cases of early onset early onset cancer can be prevented.
The risk of early onset of colon cancer in overweight and obese women was the same whether or not the woman had a family history of the disease.
Continued
Cao and members of his team warned that the study could not prove that an increase in weight caused the early onset of colon cancer, but only that the two were associated . It is possible that weight is only a marker of other risk factors, such as diabetes or metabolic problems such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol, which have also increased .
And researchers point out that despite the increase in colon cancer in people under 50, it remains relatively rare, at about 8 cases per 100,000 population. Nevertheless, as screening for colon cancer usually begins at age 50, those who develop it early are often diagnosed with advanced disease and more difficult to treat.
That is why the American Cancer Society recently lowered the recommended age at which most people should undergo initial colonoscopy screening. The new guidelines indicate that screening starts at age 45 and not at 50 as in previous guidelines.
Dr. Sherif Andrawes, an expert in colon cancer, is conducting an endoscopy at Staten Island University Hospital in New York. He said the study "is very important and confirms a recent observation among clinicians and experts in the field".
Andrawes said that there was another reason to urge Americans to get tested for colon cancer earlier.
"Younger cancer patients present symptomatic symptoms at the time of diagnosis, which may reflect aggressive disease and advanced stage early in the discovery, resulting in a general impairment of outcome in an individual over young, "he said.
And what about the risk for obese young men? According to Cao's team, one of the limitations of the study is that it included mostly white women. Further research is needed to determine whether these associations are valid for men and other populations.
The report was published online on October 11 in the journal JAMA Oncology.
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