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Rectal, rectosigmoid cancers increased in patients younger than 40 years
Meyer JE. Cancer. 2010;116: 4354-4359.
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New findings suggest that that incidence of rectal and rectosigmoid cancers are on the rise in patients aged younger than 40 years.
Therefore, researchers recommended careful evaluation in patients who present with rectal bleeding or other symptoms, according to a retrospective cohort analysis published in Cancer.
Although previous findings indicate a low incidence for rectal cancer among young, U.S. patients, “underestimating the incidence may result in a failure to diagnose younger patients with rectal cancer in a timely manner,”according to the researchers.
For this reason, researchers pooled data from the SEER cancer registry for 7,661 patients aged 40 years or younger with a colon, rectal, or rectosigmoid cancer diagnosis between 1973 and 2005. Alterations in colon, rectal and rectosigmoid cancer incidence were assessed and the annual percent change for anatomic subsites of colorectal cancer were compared.
A statistically significant increase was observed for both rectal cancer (2.6% annual percent change) and rectosigmoid cancer (2.2%). However, no significant increase was found for colon cancer (-0.2%), cancer of the sigmoid colon (0.4%) or descending colon (-2.8%).
“Joinpoint analysis of the slope of the curve of rectal and rectosigmoid cancer incidence identified the beginning of the increase to be 1984,” the researchers wrote. “All races and both genders demonstrated similar statistically significant increases in the incidence of rectal and rectosigmoid cancer.”
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