Early symptoms of colon cancer in young adults: What to know

What are early symptoms of colon cancer? With colon cancer diagnoses now more common at a younger age, here are early signs young adults should know.

Prolonged and unexplained bouts of diarrhea, stomachaches and spots of blood during bowel movements may be signs of early-onset colorectal cancer — a disease that's increasingly found in young adults not old enough to qualify for colonoscopies.

The most troubling early symptom is rectal bleeding, a possible sign of colon cancer that's not comfortably discussed beyond the bathroom.

"It can be difficult or embarrassing to talk about," said Dr. Matthew Kalady, the director of the division of colon and rectal surgery at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. "But the reality is everybody deals with something like this," and it's important to understand what's normal and what's not, he said.

The new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, published Thursday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, included 5,075 people with early-onset colorectal cancer.

Colonoscopy is the visualization of the large intestine with a tube called a colonoscope.Ozgu Arslan / Getty Images / iStockphotoThe goal was to find symptoms that might give early signals of colorectal cancer, a disease that has been surging among younger people in recent years, with an troubling number not being diagnosed until advanced stages. According to the American Cancer Society, the proportion of colorectal cancer cases occurring in people under age 55 doubled from 1995 to 2019, from 11% to 20%.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/colon-cancer-early-signs-symptoms-young-adults-rcna82629

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