2023-05-24 10:36:06
Researchers have identified four symptoms of bowel cancer that can appear up to two years before a diagnosis. They also found that these symptoms may indicate an increased risk of early bowel cancer for people under the age of 50.
Bowel cancer is the fourth most common type of cancer in the UK, and the second deadliest, with 43,000 new cases each year. The disease is also responsible for nearly 17,000 deaths a year and accounts for around 11 percent of all new cancer cases, with doctors believing that more than half (54 percent) of bowel cancer cases in the UK are preventable.
Researchers from Washington University College of Medicine in St. Louis believe that the four symptoms can help in early detection and diagnosis among younger adults.
As for the four “warning” symptoms that patients are likely to experience between three months and two years before diagnosis, they are:
abdominal pain
Rectal bleeding
Diarrhea
Anemia due to iron deficiency
The researchers said that having just one of these symptoms nearly doubles the risk of developing bowel cancer, while those with two symptoms are more than three and a half times more likely to develop it. Those with three or more symptoms were six and a half times more likely to be infected.
The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, analyzed data on more than 5,000 patients with early-onset bowel cancer.
“Colorectal cancer is not just a disease of the elderly, we want younger adults to be aware of and act upon these potentially very obvious signs of infection, especially as people under the age of 50 is considered low, and they do not receive routine screening for colorectal cancer.
“It is also necessary to spread awareness among primary care physicians, gastroenterologists and emergency physicians. To date, many early colorectal cancers have been diagnosed in emergency rooms, and there is often a significant delay in diagnosis with this cancer,” Sao added.
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Dr. Sao also cautioned that patients with rectal bleeding and iron deficiency anemia should undergo endoscopy and follow-up.
Study first author Cassandra Fritz said: ‘It usually takes about three months to get a diagnosis from the time a person first goes to the doctor with one or more of the warning symptoms and previously identified symptoms. But in this analysis, we found that some young people had symptoms for up to two years before they were diagnosed.
“This may be part of the reason why many of these younger patients had more advanced disease at the time of diagnosis than we usually see in older people who are seen regularly,” she added.
Bowel cancer screening is offered to people between the ages of 60 and 74 every two years in the UK, but currently the screening has been expanded in 2021 to include people between the ages of 50 and 59.
In this context, a study conducted in March 2023 found that a new blood test could prevent bowel cancer patients from undergoing unnecessary chemotherapy each year.
About 1,600 bowel cancer patients in the UK will take part in the study over four years.
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