INDIANA, USA — Colon and rectal cancers are now one of the leading causes of cancer deaths in people under 50, even as overall cancer deaths continue to decline, according to a yearly report published Wednesday by the American Cancer Society.
It’s one of the many insights contained in a new report put out in the journal CA: Caner Journal for Clinicians that found overall cancer mortality has continued to decline in the United States, resulting in over 4 million fewer deaths since 1991.
However, the projected number of new cancer diagnoses topped 2 million for the first time in 2024. This amounts to nearly 5,500 people each day being told they have cancer, or the equivalent to one person every 15 seconds.
The ACS said that is partly because more people are being diagnosed at earlier stages of these diseases, when cure rates are the highest.
The report’s lead author Rebecca Siegel said the nation needs to focus more on cancer prevention.
“We’re encouraged by the steady drop in cancer mortality as a result of less smoking, earlier detection for some cancers, and improved treatment,” said Siegel, who is also the senior scientific director of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society. “But as a nation, we’ve dropped the ball on cancer prevention as incidence continues to increase for many common cancers – like breast, prostate, and endometrial, as well as colorectal and cervical cancers in some young adults.”
Looking at Indiana specific numbers, the ACS anticipates 6,270 of those diagnoses will be breast cancer, 3,390 will be colon and rectum cancer, 1,270 will be leukemia, 5,930 will be lung, 2,250 will be melanoma, 1,660 will be Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, 6,470 will be prostate, 1,840 will be urinary bladder, 310 will be uterine cervix and 1,470 will be uterine corpus.
14,280 people are projected to lose their lives to cancer in Indiana, with lung cancer the most likely. It is projected to claim more than 3,000 lives in the state.
Insights from the yearly report also found cancer patients are “increasingly shifting from older to middle-aged individuals”.
Among adults 65 and older, adults 50 to 64 and adults younger than 50, “people aged younger than 50 years were the only one of these three age groups to experience an increase in overall cancer incidence from 1995 to 2000”, according to the report.
Colorectal cancer is also now the deadliest cancer for men under age 50 and the second deadliest cancer for women in that same age group. The deadliest cancer for women overall is breast cancer.
ACS said some types of cancer aren’t increasing in overall incidence but are increasing in subgroups. These include:
Colorectal cancer in people younger than age 55
Liver cancer in women
Oral cancers associated with HPV
Cervical cancer in women ages 30 through 44
The ACS also highlighted the several risk factors that contribute to cancer, saying more than 40% of all cancers in the general population are attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors.
That includes tobacco use, excess body weight, alcohol consumption, and an unhealthy diet.
Cigarette smoking increases the risk of lung cancer by 25-fold,5 and increases the risk of at least 11 other cancers. Nearly 90% of adults who smoke regularly began smoking before the age of 18, and 99% before the age of 26.
Excess body weight is likewise associated with an increased risk of developing at least 12 types of cancer, including those of the uterine corpus, liver, kidney, esophagus, postmenopausal female breast cancer, and pancreas.
Alcohol consumption, meanwhile, increases the risk of liver, esophageal, colorectal, oral, stomach, and female breast cancers.
You can get a look at the full report, including how specific cancers are changing, here.