Colon cancer is quickly becoming a young person’s disease in countries around the world, rich and poor.
A study released recently in the medical journal Lancet Oncology documents rising rates of early-onset colorectal cancer across rich, highly industrialised parts of North America and Europe, and in middle-income areas worldwide.
“We found this trend is not just about high-income, Western countries,” lead study author and cancer researcher Hyuna Sung says. “It reaches the parts we didn’t see before, such as South America and Asia.”
From 2013 to 2017, colon cancer rates in young people went up in 27 of 50 countries Sung’s team examined worldwide.
Although the study only includes one country in Africa, Uganda, it is still some of the most recent, comprehensive data available on colon cancer rates around the globe. And it shows colon cancer rates increasing in young people living in countries like Turkey, Ecuador, and Chile.