Why are more millennials getting cancer?

The University of Cincinnati Cancer Center's Carla Justiniano joined WVXU's Cincinnati Edition to discuss the rise in cancer diagnoses among younger people.

"Colorectal cancer is one of the ones that is definitely increasing and increasing," said Justiniano, MD, Cancer Center colorectal surgeon and researcher and assistant professor in UC's College of Medicine. "Some of the others that we’ve seen [increasing] are thyroid and some of the small intestine cancers."

New guidelines now recommend people begin colonoscopy screenings at 45 years of age rather than the previous recommendation of 50.

"However, patients can still get a colonoscopy even if they don’t qualify for screening," Justiniano said. "A diagnostic colonoscopy is the same exact colonoscopy with a slightly different purpose behind it.

"So part of it is for patients to be really knowledgeable about their body and to understand what’s normal for them," she continued. "And if they’re having a change, to already be established with a primary care doctor who they can tell those changes to, it can lead to subsequent workups."

Listen to the Cincinnati Edition segment.

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