Experts claim common gut problem could raise risk of bowel cancer by 600%
Bowel cancer is the second leading cause of death in America with an increasing number of people under 50 developing the disease
William Morgan
Warning: This article contains discussion of cancer which some readers may find distressing.
Most cancers have seen more and more people survive them in recent decades, as medical breakthroughs continue to save the lives of millions from once fatal diseases.
Sadly, there is one cancer that is bucking this positive trend in survivability, becoming the second leading cause of death across America after heart disease, due to a rise in people under 50 being diagnosed. That trend-bucking disease is bowel cancer
This disease is now the number one cause of cancer deaths in younger people, after fatality rates across other cancers dropped by half thanks to better detection and treatment. While the reason for this is unclear, scientists believe they have found a common health condition that increases the risk of bowel cancer by a staggering 600 per cent.
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Nutrition researchers at King's College London (KCL) now believe that younger people living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which primarily presents as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, are six times more likely to develop bowel cancer.
While scientists are still exploring what could be causing this trend, the KCL researchers believe that damaged stomach lining, a feature of IBDs, increases the likelihood that dangerous cancers could form in the colon.
They found that younger people in the UK are now 50 per cent more likely to develop the deadly disease than the same age cohort in the 1990s and KCL's Professor Sarah Berry has received $27 million in funding to find out why.
While her Prospect study is still examining the underlying causes for this trend, Professor Berry says a growing body of evidence indicates that IBDs could be behind it. Which is concerning as these bowel conditions have been on the rise across the Western world.
Although it is massively underdiagnosed, at least 2.4 million Americans are known to live with Crohn's or ulcerative colitis. Most of these people diagnosed with IBD are under 50.
Berry said: "IBD patients have a higher risk of early-age colorectal cancer than the rest of the population.
"Research in Sweden has shown the condition leads to a six-fold increase in diagnoses. The main theory is that the persistent inflammation in the bowels triggers the cancer."
Almost 53,000 across the US died of bowel cancer last year, with the number of young people dying with the disease, once thought to be an age-related illness, increasing by three per cent every year.
The most common signs of bowel cancer tend to be major red flags, like spotting blood in your stool, or experiencing severe abdominal pain, unexplained weight loss and fatigue.
Science has yet to firmly establish what is causing this rise in IBD, but preliminary studies indicate, predictably, that it's all about your diet.
Professor Berry explained: "It’s already known that patients who have an unhealthy diet high in processed meats and sugary drinks are more likely to get bowel cancer.
"There is also some evidence that additives found in ultra-processed foods could inflame the bowel and raise the risk of cancer. We don’t know that for certain but it’s something that needs to be investigated."