Bowel cancer rates among 15-24 year olds have risen by 266% in just three decades, an Australian study has found. And many young patients have poor outcomes, warn the journals BMJ Open and BMC Primary Care .
The work, led by Dr. Klay Lamprell, Australian Institute for Health Innovation at Macquarie University, was based on data from Australian teenagers, in the context of a mysterious increase in bowel cancer in young people that has also been recorded in many other countries such as the US and UK.
Bowel cancer includes cancer that starts in the rectum, colon or anal area - Illustration: TIMES OF INDIA
Another survey within the research framework based on hundreds of young patients from the UK, Australia and New Zealand showed that they had experienced diagnoses of hemorrhoids, gynecological diseases... before the actual cancer was discovered.
These misdiagnoses include patients whose top warning sign of bowel cancer is blood in their stools. Some said they had to argue with their doctors when they believed they had something more serious than initially thought.
Dr Lamprell stressed that not only the subjectivity of the patient but also the subjectivity of the diagnostician has contributed to many young colon cancer patients only receiving the correct diagnosis when the disease is in the late stages. "Age bias" also appears in communication campaigns and screening in many places.
The findings highlight the urgency of changing public thinking about the disease. Medical Xpress quoted Dr Graston Arnolda, an epidemiologist at Macquarie University, co-author, as saying that Australia is discussing lowering the recommended age for bowel cancer screening to 45, as the US has done.
At the same time, younger people should also be considered for this risk when there are warning signs that are quite easily confused with many other diseases. For example, chronic digestive disorders also have signs of diarrhea, constipation or the feeling of not being able to completely empty the bowels...
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), bowel cancer - also known as colorectal cancer, including rectal, colon or anal cancer - is the third most common cancer in the world and the second leading cause of cancer death.
Bowel cancer burden is highest in Asia, with around half of all recorded cases and deaths. Obesity, alcohol use and unhealthy diet are the leading causes of the disease.
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