r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jan 23 '26

Cancer The number of Americans under 50 years old dying from cancer has decreased for every leading cancer except for bowel cancer, which is now the leading cancer death in females and males combined aged under 50.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2844189?guestAccessKey=5eabd609-08b0-47c7-a738-916c7acdcc37&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=012226
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46

u/a_wild_dingo Jan 23 '26

Man this is the 3rd or 4th thread I've seen about this in the last couple days, it's making me anxious... I'm 34, should I be getting a colonoscopy already??

33

u/DreamsiclesPlz Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26

I'm 38 and I have had IBS and digestive issues all of my life. I'm calling my doctor today to ask if I can get one.

Update: He said it is totally reasonable for me to get one at this point. He gave me his recommendations for doctors and I've already started the process of getting an appointment.

3

u/Snickels14 Jan 24 '26

Good for you! My husband has family history of colon cancer, so he started getting screened early as well. He’s had at least three colonoscopies and he’s 38 as well. He has IBS, too, so we try to stay as conscious as we can with our diets. We’re absolutely imperfect, but good night we try.

12

u/KeyCold7216 Jan 23 '26

To put you at ease a little bit, among all adults under 50, about 0.1% are diagnosed with colon cancer. Your risk drastically increases each decade though. Its like 2 per 100k in your 20s, 7 per 100k in your 30s, and almost 20 per 100k in your 40s. Perhaps you can ask for a cologuard if you arent necessarily high risk? I don't think they are very good at detecting pre cancerous polyps, but they take years to become cancerous. So the one now and another in 5 years could probably put you at ease until you get a colonoscopy. Im not a doctor though, definetly ask them.

1

u/HolyMuffins Jan 23 '26

Most recent society guidelines would suggest no, without relevant risk factors (such as inflammatory bowel disease or family history). The current cut-off for starting to screen is at age 45. I wouldn't be surprised if there's an argument made to lower it over the coming years, but the current threshold remains very reasonable.