It’s not entirely clear why bowel cancer rates are rising in adults under 50
Steve Gerschmeissner/Science Photo Library
Bowel cancer rates are rising in young people around the world, but the trend appears to be most common in high-income countries.
Previous research suggests rising rates of bowel or colorectal cancer Over the past few decades, this age group has spread across several Western countries including the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. This has sparked speculation about whether a Western lifestyle, such as a diet high in meat or processed foods, is to blame.
To better understand the extent of the problem, Hyun Ah Sung At the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, Georgia, she and her colleagues examined bowel cancer rates in 50 countries around the world. They typically use the World Health Organization database to collect incidence data from 1975 to 2017, although some countries did not start reporting this information until several years after 1975.
The team found that bowel cancer rates have increased in 27 countries and territories among people aged 25 to 49. These include non-Western countries such as Japan, as well as less wealthy countries such as Turkey, raising the possibility that Western lifestyles alone may not be able to lag behind this trend.
The increase is also unlikely to be related to improvements in screening, as most countries do not routinely test people for bowel cancer until they are 50 years old, the researchers wrote in their paper.
However, all 27 countries and territories achieved very high or very high scores on the United Nations Human Development Index, which is based on average life expectancy, education levels and per capita income.
Furthermore, all but six countries are considered high-income, according to the World Bank. Unlike most of the high-income countries studied, in these six places bowel cancer cases are growing at the same or greater rate among older people than among younger people.
“I think there’s still evidence in the trends that economic development and westernization of lifestyles do play a role,” said Andrew Chen The Harvard professor points out that many countries have adopted this lifestyle as their economies grew. For example, Meat intake in Japan It increased more than sevenfold between 1961 and 2021.
“That being said, I think it should still be considered that there may be other factors at play,” such as environmental pollutants, Chen said.
The researchers noted that their study had several limitations, most notably the underrepresentation of African and Asian countries and small islands. For example, only one African country is included – Uganda. Some countries also do not have complete data sets. For example, India’s figures represent only 4% of the country’s population.
Still, the findings improve our understanding of the differences in bowel cancer rates between many different countries, which could help us design new ways to prevent the disease, Chan said.
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