Research shows that the number of bowel cancer deaths among young women will increase by 40% due to obesity and alcohol

Obesity and alcohol are driving up death rates for bowel cancer among young people, researchers warn.

A study predicts a nearly 40 percent increase in colon cancer deaths this year among women ages 25 to 49.

The disease is the third leading cancer killer among men, after lung and prostate cancer, and the third leading after breast and lung cancer in women.

In the overall UK population, the number of deaths from bowel cancer is expected to fall, but is predicted to rise among people aged between 25 and 49, amid warnings that unhealthy lifestyles contribute to cancer at a young age. The study suggests that death rates for bowel cancer in this age group will increase by 26 percent for men and 39 percent for women compared to 2018.

It follows the death of podcast presenter Dame Deborah James, who died in 2022 aged 40 after being diagnosed with bowel cancer six years earlier.

Professor Sir Mike Richards says it may be necessary to lower the threshold at which people are sent for colonoscopy diagnostics

Dr. Panagiota Mitrou of the World Cancer Research Fund called the figures “alarming” and added: “The reasons for the gender differences are unclear but need to be investigated in more detail.”

Professor Carlo La Vecchia, from the University of Milan, said the main factors were obesity and associated health problems such as high blood sugar levels and diabetes.

He also mentioned heavier alcohol consumption and reductions in physical activity, adding: ‘Countries where alcohol consumption has decreased, such as France and Italy, have not experienced such a marked increase in death rates from this cancer. Early-onset colon cancer tends to be more aggressive, with lower survival rates.”

In Annals of Oncology, the team called on governments to expand colon cancer screening to people aged 45. In England, people aged 60 to 74 are invited for screening, with the program being expanded to include people aged 50 to 59.

But Professor Sir Mike Richards, former national cancer director at the Department of Health and Social Care, said there is also a need to lower the threshold at which people are sent to undergo a colonoscopy diagnostic test for bowel cancer. The NHS in England has set the threshold for the FIT stool test at 120 micrograms of blood per gram of stool, but Professor Richards says that – as in Scotland – this should be 80 or lower.

The Department of Health said: ‘The UK’s independent National Screening Committee considers scientific evidence and decides on age cohorts to ensure a program does more good than harm. Damage from screening can arise from overdiagnosis.’