Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death among U.S. adults under 50, according to a study published Jan. 22 in JAMA.
American Cancer Society researchers analyzed data from the National Center for Health Statistics, examining annual cancer death trends and age-standardized rates per 100,000 for adults between 1990 and 2023.
Of the five leading causes of cancer death — colorectal, breast, lung, brain cancers, and leukemia — only colorectal cancer mortality increased during the study period.
Colorectal cancer death rates rose by 1.1% annually beginning in 2005, pushing the disease from the fifth leading cause of cancer death in the early 1990s to the first in 2023. Lung cancer, previously the leading cause, dropped to fourth. Breast cancer remained the second leading cause of cancer death.
Overall, cancer mortality among people under 50 declined 44% between 1990 and 2023, from 25.5 to 14.2 deaths per 100,000. Declines for the other four cancers ranged from 0.3% to 5.7% annually over the last decade.
“The steady rise in colorectal deaths under 50 is even more alarming compared to the dramatic declines for lung and breast, even as breast cancer incidence is climbing,” lead author Rebecca Siegel, senior scientific director of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society, said in a Jan. 22 news release. “While we await answers for why colorectal cancer rates are up, lives can be saved now through symptom awareness and destigmatization, and more screening uptake, as three in four people under 50 are diagnosed with advanced disease.”
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