Dr. Shah on the Increase of Early-Onset CRC

Manish A. Shah, MD, director of gastrointestinal oncology, Weill Cornell Medicine/New York-Presbyterian Hospital, discusses the increase in prevalence of early-onset colorectal cancer (CRC).

For the last 2 decades we’ve seen an increase in patients with early-onset CRC, but the numbers are subtle, explains Shah. CRC for patients over the age of 50 has decreased mostly due to screening programs, however that is not the case for patients under the age of 50.

The cases of early-onset CRC have risen by about 3% per year over the last 15 years, making a difference of 4.5%. One might think that this makes an argument to screen earlier, but based on our own analysis I am not sure that's correct because the biology is different, states Shah.