Younger adults under 50 are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced colorectal cancer than older adults, because screening is not routinely recommended for them and symptoms are often overlooked by both patients and doctors.

In the United States, more adults aged 50 to 64 are being diagnosed with and dying from colorectal cancer, especially when the cancer is already advanced at diagnosis, even though many in this group are getting screened. This suggests that current screening methods may not be catching the cancer early enough in this age group.

Over the last 20 years, the number of new cases of colorectal cancer in people under 50 has roughly doubled compared to earlier rates.

Since 2013, the number of new colorectal cancer cases per year has risen by 3% each year among U.S. adults aged 20 to 49, while cases have decreased in older adults.

In the United States, men between the ages of 25 and 44 died from early-onset colorectal cancer at a higher rate than women in 2020, with 2.6 deaths per 10,000 men compared to 2.0 per 10,000 women.

From 1990 to 2021, the number of colorectal cancer cases in people aged 40 to 44 rose by 59%, and the rate adjusted for population age increased by 37%, showing that this age group experienced the fastest growth in cases among young adults.