Colon Cancer is on the Rise Among Young Adults
3/19/2025
This article was written by Jewel Dominguez for the Las Cruces Bulletin. The original article can be found here.
March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. With colon cancer on the rise in young adults, local medical centers are trying to do their part to warn people of the growing risk of the disease once thought only to affect people in their 50s and older.
Since the 1990s, colon cancer rates have been on a steady increase among Gen X and Millennials. According to a report from the American Cancer Society, colorectal cancer cases increased from 11% in 1995 to 20% in 2019. It is unclear to doctors exactly why the increase is occurring. Still, local physicians such as Mountainview Regional Medical Center’s gastroenterologist, Dr. Jobin Philipose, believes this change does not have to be scary if people take the necessary precautions sooner rather than later.
“Health is an investment. If you decide at 50 years old or older that you want to start eating healthier, but you have been eating processed food, drinking a lot and smoking for the last 40 years, it is much harder to undo that damage. And some damage cannot be undone.”
Philipose was voted Bulletin’s Best of the Mesilla Valley in 2024 and has been awarded the presidential award for a research presentation in gastroenterology. He believes health education and awareness are the key to fighting the increase in cases.
“Where we have seen the increase in cases among people under 50, we also see a decrease in instances of people 60 and older. The reason is that older people are more likely to have a colonoscopy,” Philipose said.
He said 45 is the age when people should get an initial screening unless alarming symptoms arise, such as anemia, weight loss and most notably blood in the stool. Philipose says preparation before the colonoscopy is most important.
“The question I get asked the most is, ‘Doc, really a colonoscopy?’ It is not a scary procedure, and people do not mind it. However, prep can be a problem for people,” he said.
In recent years, stool screenings have become more popular, noninvasive ways for people to screen for colon cancer, and certain insurance providers are being approved to do screening through bloodwork. However, Philipose warns that although stool screenings can be 80% to 90% accurate, there is an inaccuracy rate of 30% to 60%. Colonoscopy is considered the gold standard for precise screening.
A healthy diet should also be considered when considering preventing colon cancer. According to a 2024 study by Ohio State University, researchers found that the Western diet, consisting of high intakes of prepackaged foods, refined grains, fried foods, and other products, can agitate bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract, resulting in inflammation and accelerating the aging of cells. Philipose also warns drinking heavily, smoking, and eating a lot of red meat can result in a bad gut that can develop into disease.
Young adults can do a lot to prevent colon cancer, including scheduling a screening, talking with a doctor about unusual bowel problems, and adopting a Mediterranean diet. Philipose reminds patients that anything can happen and that everyone’s body is different, but the best prevention is awareness and information.
“New Mexico is behind in screening rates, and people aren’t taught to worry about their health till they are older. Health professionals need to do more to educate people. We need to stand in front and inform people about their bodies. Nowadays, people turn to social media and get the wrong information because it is based on views instead of facts. We need to inform people, starting from elementary and so on, so we can see lower rates of all cancers, not just colon cancer,” he said.
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