Yahoo News: Doctors see rising rates of colon cancer in younger people

While overall rates of colorectal cancer deaths and diagnoses in the total population are declining, those rates are increasing among young people.

"Cancer is rising in younger patients, and it's disturbing," Rekha Chaudhary, MD, University of Cincinnati Cancer Center physician-researcher and adjunct professor in UC's College of Medicine, said in a recent Ohio Department of Health press conference.

Among those 55 and younger, colorectal cancer rates have been increasing by 1% to 2% a year since about the mid-1990s, and deaths have risen about 1% per year since the mid-2000s, according to the American Cancer Society. Colorectal cancer is the second highest cause of cancer death in the United States.

While research into the cause of this increase is ongoing, experts are focusing on environmental factors, long-term generational changes in diet and the effect of stress.

"The World Health Organization recommends 20-25 grams of fiber a day. The average American gets 15 grams of fiber a day," Chaudhary said. "...It's a lot of fiber, but that is so important for the food for our bacteria, the good bacteria, to decrease the colorectal cancer risks."

Read the Yahoo News story, originally published in the Dayton Daily News.

Featured photo at top of a medical professional holding a colonoscope. Photo/robertprzybysz/iStock.