OPINION — Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death among people younger than 50 in the United States, according to a 2026 study by the American Cancer Society published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
At the same time, colorectal cancer diagnosis rates for those younger than 50 have risen by 2.9% per year from 2013 to 2022.
As a primary care physician practicing in Arizona for many years, I’ve watched colorectal cancer shift from a condition most patients associated with retirement age to one I’m now discussing with people in their 30s and 40s. Nationally, the American Cancer Society projects that in 2026, there will be nearly 109,000 cases of colon cancer, split about equally between men and women, and nearly 50,000 new cases of rectal cancer, with 28,750 in men and 21,240 in women.
