Study Investigators Question the Rise of CRC in Young Adult Patients
Amir Khan, MD, discusses the possible reasons for the rising incidence of young adult patients with gastric cancer and colorectal cancer at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.
Amir Khan, MD, surgical oncology fellow at the City of Hope, discusses the possible reasons for the rising incidence of young adult patients with gastric cancer and colorectal cancer (CRC) at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.
Khan says that at this time it is unclear what the mechanisms are behind the rise of gastric and colorectal cancers in young adult patients that was seen in a retrospective analysis of the California Cancer Registry and the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development data for all gastric cancer and CRC cases from 2000 to 2012. Theories that have risen in this setting include the question of comorbidities increasing in the younger population such as diabetes, smoking, and obesity.
In this analysis, Khan and his colleagues found that the younger patients, those who were aged 18 to 40, and even those a bit older at 41 to 49 years old, had a lower rate of comorbidities including diabetes, obesity, and smoking. One of their goals in this setting now is to determine what the cause is of the rise of these cancers in this younger patient population.
