CASES of aggressive bowel cancer that kills half of those it strikes are rising in teens and young adults, scientists warn.
As the disease historically affects older adults, youngsters may be missing – which include tummy aches and lower back pain.
Researchers from Mass General Brigham for Children and Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute found that children and teens with bowel cancer face “extreme delays” in diagnosis.
As a result, many won’t be diagnosed with cancer until it’s reached an advanced stage – making treatment trickier and increasing the likelihood of death.
Study author and paediatric surgery research fellow Erica Arnold said: “Colorectal cancer [another term for ] is, unfortunately, becoming more common in adolescents and young adults and represents a different disease than colorectal cancer diagnosed in older adults.
“When diagnosed, it is often aggressive, presenting with late-stage disease and associated with high rates of disease relapse and mortality.”
Researchers, who presented their study at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2026 National Conference in , examined the medical files of 84 patients aged 21 or younger who were diagnosed with bowel cancer between 2012 and 2023.
Most of them had aggressive forms of the disease that weren’t spotted until it had progressed to stage three or four.
One of the reasons could be that teens are missing warning signs of the disease, authors said, as they don’t know it could affect them.
But they also urged medics to be vigilant about bowel cancer symptoms in young patients.
Symptoms that may be overlooked include:
- Lower
- Changes in bowel habits – such as pooing more or less often, or changes in consistency
- Weight loss
- Bleeding from the bottom
On average, patients were diagnosed with bowel cancer at 16.
Most (65 of them) had colon cancer and 19 had rectal cancer.
Only 20 per cent of them had close family member diagnosed with the disease – which can increase someone’s risk of developing cancer.
The most common symptoms they reported were back pain, changes in bowel habits, weight loss and bleeding.
Due to delays over a third of the patients studied saw their bowel cancer come back after treatment.
Meanwhile, nearly half of them died.
Researchers said their study was in line with others that have warned of growing rates of bowel cancer in people under the age of 50.
found that major cancer types are becoming less deadly for young people – except for bowel cancer.
In the UK, over 46,000 people are diagnosed with each year – making it the fourth most common cancer.
There has been – many of whom face delays in diagnosis due to their age.
Most cases are still spotted in people over the age of 50, with about 2,600 people younger than that diagnosed with bowel cancer every year.
But since the 1990s, rates of bowel cancer in 25 to 49-year-olds have increased by 72 per cent, according to – compared to a 6 per cent increase in people aged 50 to 59, and a 3 per cent increase in 60 to 74-year-olds.
Aside from family history, factors like , lack of exercise and poor diets – low in fibre and high in fat, processed meat and booze – can raise the risk of early onset cancer.
