Colon cancers may be surging in under 50s because of a rise in ‘accelerated agers’, according to a new study.
These people have a biological age that is higher than their chronological age, which is caused by a mixture of lifestyle choices like diet and alcohol consumption, and environmental factors such as exposure to chemicals.
The researchers studied people under the age of 50 who’d had colonoscopies and calculated their biological age by analyzing blood samples.
They found that each year of accelerated aging correlated with a 16 percent increased risk of developing polyps, small growths that can lead to cancer.
The team was surprised to find that other risk factors normally associated with colon cancer, such as bodyfat and smoking history, were not linked to the disease.
A growing body of research suggests accelerated agers are becoming more common, even as life expectancy continues to increase – a paradox researchers are still investigating.
Dr Shria Kumar, a colorectal cancer specialist behind the new research, said: ‘Aging is multifaceted, and we need larger studies to establish whether most people’s biological age is the same as their chronological age.’
That said, she added: ‘It is pretty striking that multiple studies, including ours, have found that biological age provides distinct health information and that could help us prevent cancer.’
The finding comes amid a worldwide explosion of colon cancers in younger patients that has baffled doctors.
While it is most common in over-50s, the disease has surged by 50 per cent in the younger age-groups over the past three decades, recent data suggests.
For this reason in the US, health chiefs now recommended colon cancer screening starts at 45.
Some doctors now say this needs to be moved even younger, because half of early-onset colorectal cancers occur in people under 45, according to the latest statistics from the National Cancer Institute.
In the UK, NHS screening is only available to those aged 54 to 74.
There are multiple ways to screen for colon cancer now, including more convenient stool-sample tests collected at home.
But colonoscopy, a procedure that requires sedation in hospital, remains the gold standard.
During a colonoscopy, the doctor identifies and removes polyps – of which 30 percent of people have – and prevent cancers from forming.
‘What’s really, I think, exciting about the opportunity in colorectal cancer is that we have a clear prevention tactic,’ Dr Kumar said.
‘Colonoscopy is not only early detection, but also cancer prevention.’
Now her team wants to work out who is likely to suffer accelerated aging, and start prioritizing them for colonoscopies.
Tests to determine people’s biological age range from $100 – $1,000 (700GBP), although there are concerns about their accuracy.
The exact reason for the link between accelerated ageing and colon cancer isn’t fully understood.
However, some factors that raise a person’s risk of early-onset colorectal cancer also elevate biological age.
These include poor diets — including diets high in ultra-processed foods — obesity, smoking, alcohol consumption and other lifestyle habits.
Other key factors in accelerated ageing are pollution and stress.
Earlier this year, separate research found young people diagnosed with certain types of cancer – especially lung, gastrointestinal and uterine cancers – were more likely to suffer accelerated ageing.
Intriguingly, the US researchers involved in the study said there was ‘strong evidence’ that the risk of accelerated ageing, and therefore of developing cancer, increased with each successive generation born after 1965.
And that may mean Gen Z – those born between 1997 and 2012 who are becoming young adults today – are at a far greater risk of developing potentially deadly diseases such as cancer at a much earlier stage than their parents or grandparents.
Professor Ilaria Bellantuono, co-director of the Healthy Lifespan Institute at the University of Sheffield, told MailOnline: ‘We don’t know enough to say for certain that younger generations are ageing faster or why,’ she says.
‘That research hasn’t been done. But it’s not impossible. We are seeing more disease in younger people, the kinds of diseases we might normally expect to be developing in older adults.
‘And biological ageing is a risk factor for those diseases. In the same way that smokers increase their risk of lung cancer, does accelerated ageing increase the risk of developing more multiple long-term chronic conditions?’
Consultant oncologist Dr Hendrik-Tobias Arkenau, from HCA Healthcare in London, said the colon cancers in young people are most frequently only being spotted in their later, or sometimes tragically, final stages.
‘Who thinks a 35 or 42-year-old has bowel cancer if they have tummy ache, weight loss, some blood (in stool),’ he said.
Dr Arkenau said he believes the reason behind the increase to be unclear, although he thought it was a combination of factors influencing the microbiome of young people’s guts.
He said use of antibiotics in childhood, falling rates of breastfeeding, vitamin intake and diet changes are just some factors that could be at play.
‘There is no clear cut one thing, I think it is multi-factorial and there are other aspects,’ he said.
Analysis suggests deaths from colon cancer overall in the UK are set to rise by 2,500 a year between now and 2040.
Meanwhile, the number of people in the UK diagnosed with the disease will rise by around a tenth in the same period.
Bowel cancer currently kills just shy of 17,000 Brits each year with only half of those diagnosed expected to survive 10 years after learning they have the disease.
