ATLANTA Medicine: A 34-year-old postpartum female with known hemorrhoids presents with bright red blood per rectum. It's no longer appropriate to prescribe suppositories and instruct her to call if symptoms persist. She needs a colonoscopy (not a fecal DNA test) because we are seeing a worrisome shift in colorectal cancer (CRC) in younger patients.
Colorectal cancer is decreasing worldwide in the population over age 50 due to more aggressive screening, however early-onset colorectal cancer (EOCC), defined as those diagnosed before age 50, is rising at an alarming rate, with left-sided colon and rectal cancers predominating.
This has led the American Cancer Society to lower the screening age for normal-risk patients from 50 to 45. However, this may not be adequate as individuals born in the 1990s have double the risk of colon cancer and quadruple the risk of rectal cancer compared to adults born in the 1950s at their same age.
Read the full article as it appeared in ATLANTA Medicine.
