Younger Adults See Sharp Rise in Pancreas & Colon Cancer, Study Shows
Arvind Trindade, MD, discusses the background of a study investigating rates of pancreatic and colon cancer among younger patients.
A study published in JAMA examined the incidence trends of pancreas and colorectal adenocarcinoma in the US between 2000 and 2021 using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Arvind Trindade, MD, one of the authors, noted that he was seeing younger patients in clinic presenting with these cancers in the past decade.
"What we've seen over the past decade is that more and more we're seeing younger patients that are being referred for diagnosis of pancreas cancer and which are found to have either incidental or or symptomatic lesions in the pancreas," said Trindade, co-chief of endoscopy for Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and advanced endoscopist at RWJBarnabas Health. "It makes you pause a little bit, because you're just like, "Oh my gosh. Why is a 30-year-old coming to me for a pancreas mass?"
The key finding is that while the incidence of pancreatic adenocarcinoma increased across all age groups, the most significant annual percentage change (APC) was observed in the youngest age group (15-34 years). For colorectal adenocarcinoma, the incidence decreased in older adults (≥55 years) but significantly increased in younger adults (15-34 and 35-54 years), with the highest increase also seen in the youngest group.
The study concludes that clinicians should be more aware of these increasing trends in younger populations when evaluating patients with potential symptoms of these cancers.
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