Forbes April 29, 2024
Dr. Lara Lambert, an emergency medicine physician, was 36 when she developed bloody stools. She regularly exercised, rarely consumed red meat or alcohol and had no concerning family history. She thought colorectal cancer was “an older man’s disease” and assumed the scant, intermittent bleeding was a new diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome. However, at age 40, the volume and frequency of bleeding increased. Her doctor scheduled a colonoscopy and shortly after the procedure, Lambert was diagnosed with Stage 3c colorectal cancer.
While rates are decreasing for older patients, young-onset colorectal cancer—affecting patients under age 50—has been increasing by 1-2% a year since the mid-1990s. “If you compare two individuals at the same age, one born in 1990 and the other...
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