More young people than ever are getting colon cancer. Take this quiz to check your risk level
An interactive quiz can reveal your risk of colorectal cancer – a disease that is quietly causing an epidemic among young people.
Once considered an “old man’s disease,” cancer diagnoses are now on the rise among 55-year-olds, doubling in the past 25 years. The age group is now lagging behind at one in five cases.
To alert people to their risk, Fight Colorectal Cancer designed a 13-point questionnaire that looks at age, ethnicity, family history of cancer, activity levels, and obesity status.
You can take the quiz below:
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Users are also asked whether a person’s diet is high in red or processed meat, or low in fiber, grains and vegetables, and how much alcohol they drink.
Users are then assigned a ‘low’, ‘moderate’ or ‘high’ risk of developing colon cancer and are encouraged to get screened for the disease if they fall into the latter categories.
Dr. Fola May, a physician at the University of California, Los Angeles and a board member of Fight Colorectal Cancer, said the quiz was for people of all ages.
She said Insider that those given a “low risk” estimate didn’t need to be checked for colon cancer until age 45.
But if a person’s mother, father, sibling has cancer, or if they are given a higher risk assessment, then they should consider getting screened by the time they turn 40 years old.
The quiz will tell people that they have either a low, green zone, medium, yellow and orange zone, or a high, red zone, risk of developing colon cancer
A colon cancer screening is called a colonoscopy. This is when doctors insert a short, thin, flexible tube into someone’s rectum to check for polyps or signs of cancer in the lower third of the colon.
Amid concerns about rising cancer diagnoses among younger adults, US doctors are currently recommending that everyone should get screened starting at age 45.
People should go once every 10 years, the guidelines suggest, but those in their 60s who are at higher risk should get checked once every five years.
Previously, they had recommended that people should not be screened for cancer until age 50.
Screenings help detect cancer at an early stage when it is much easier to treat.
Because colon cancer causes few or no symptoms in the early stages, many people may have the cancer without realizing it.
Early warning signs include blood in the stool, change in bowel habits, cold hands and feet, and abdominal pain.
Colon cancer is the third most common cancer in men and women, after 100,000 cases and 52,000 deaths per year.
About 63 percent of people live more than five years after their diagnosis, estimates suggest.
It’s not clear what causes the cancer, but it has previously been linked to a diet high in red or processed meat, being overweight and having a family history of cancer.