It’s the phenomenon that’s baffled doctors around the world: bowel cancer, usually a disease of the elderly, has soared by 50 per cent in 20, 30 and 40-somethings over the past 30 years.
Now, in a fascinating discussion between two of the world’s leading cancer experts, a new theory as to the explanation behind the trend has been tabled.
While acknowledging that there is likely ‘several’ contributing factors, the top specialists have suggested that a common childhood infection could be partly to blame for rising young cases of the disease, known as colon cancer in the US.
In an interview with The Health Foundation, Dr Charles Swanton, Chief Clinician of Cancer Research UK, spoke of ’emerging data’ showing that a specific type of the bacteria E. coli contracted in childhood could ‘contribute at least to some of the cancer initiation processes.’
Adults in the United States are dying from colon and rectal cancers at an increasing rate about age 50, when they should just be beginning screenings, according to a new study from the American Cancer Society.
Since routine screening is generally not recommended for most adults under 50, the cancers found in younger adults are often in advanced stages and more deadly, said Dr. James Church, a colorectal surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
Church, who was not involved in the new study, said he has seen this trend in death rates up close. Last year, on separate occasions, Church saw two 36-year-olds with stage IV colon cancer, he said.
In both of those patients, who had no relation to each other, the cancer spread to their livers, making it so he couldn’t operate. Both died, he said.
“They both had young families, both little girls, and they lost their father in one case and their mother in the other, forever, because of this nasty disease when it’s advanced,” Church said.
https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/08/health/colon-cancer-rectal-cancer-deaths-study/index.html
h/t Celtic Mage