Overview

• A British Journal of Surgery review reports dramatic increases in early-onset gastrointestinal cancers in high-income countries.
• US early-onset colorectal cancer incidence rose from 5.9 per 100,000 in 2000 to 8.4 per 100,000 in 2017, with CDC data showing a 333% jump among 15- to 19-year-olds.
• Adults born around 1990 face double the colon cancer risk and quadruple the rectal cancer risk compared with those born in 1950.
• Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and Asian patients experience disproportionately higher early-onset colorectal cancer rates than non-Hispanic whites.
• Younger patients often encounter delayed diagnoses, aggressive treatments lacking survival advantage and insufficient fertility and psychosocial support.