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Colon cancer rates are rising for the first time in 20 years. Here’s who’s most at risk

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Colon cancer rates are rising for the first time in 20 years. Here’s who’s most at risk

If you’re overdue for a colonoscopy, let this be your reminder: Colorectal cancer rates are increasing for pretty much everyone.

While word has gotten out of rising colorectal cancer rates among younger adults, a new study found that rates are rising across all age groups up to the age of 69. Researchers from the University of Chicago found that the overall incidence rate for this type of cancer—the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S.—rose for the first time in more than 20 years, according to a study published earlier this week in NEJM Evidence.

The age-adjusted incidence rate of colorectal cancer rose from 36.7 per 100,000 people in 2022 to 38.3 in 2023, the study’s authors found. By comparison, the incidence rate in 2000 was 55.2. The incidence rate among people between the ages of 45 to 49 rose nearly 13% from 2019 to 2023, the sharpest increase among any age group, though that’s likely driven by more people in this cohort undergoing screening for the testing. In 2021, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force lowered the recommended age of first screening to 45 from 50.

“That means that screening is doing as we intend it to do—it’s catching cancer earlier,” Caitlin Murphy, the lead author of the study and a professor of pediatrics and public health sciences at the University of Chicago, said in a statement. 

But earlier screening doesn’t explain why the incidence rate is also rising among older adults between the ages of 65 and 69 as they’re about 80% up-to-date with screening and historically benefitted from this detection method.


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