Although standard guidelines for colorectal cancer screening recommend starting screening at 50 years, the percentage of cancer cases in younger patients is increasing, according to a study published in Cancer.
Here are five insights:
1. Researchers conducted a population-based, retrospective cohort study of the nationally representative Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry for patients diagnosed with CRC from 1998 through 2011.
2. They found that of the 258,024 patients with CRC examined, 37,847 were aged younger than 50 years.
3. Young patients were more likely to present with regional or distant disease.
4. Patients younger than 50 years had better overall disease-specific survival despite a larger percentage of these patients presenting with advanced disease.
5. "These findings suggest the need for improved risk assessment and screening decisions for younger adults," study authors noted.