HEALTH MYSTERY

Study: Colorectal Cancer Rates Rise for Young People

Experts can’t pinpoint why.

Colon and rectal cancer rates are on the rise among people born in the 1980s and 1990s, and scientists are unable to explain why, according to a new study from the American Cancer Society. Colorectal cancers are much more common for older people, but the study found that colorectal cancer rates have been increasing for every generation born after 1950. The American Cancer Society predicts that 13,500 new cases of colorectal cancers will be diagnosed in 2017 for Americans under 50 years old. “People born in 1990, like my son, have double the risk of colon cancer and quadruple the risk of rectal cancer” compared with those at the same age who were born in the mid-20th century, said Rebecca Siegel, the lead author of the study.