Bowel cancer is rising among under 50s: What to know | Health News [Video]

Long considered a disease of older adults, bowel cancer is increasingly affecting younger generations across the globe.

Cases of early-onset bowel cancer are climbing among people under 50 years old, with countries like the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Chile seeing some of the sharpest rises.

Here’s what to know about the shifting landscape of the disease.

Also known as colorectal cancer, bowel cancer involves tumours in the large bowel, which is made up of the colon and rectum.

Bowel cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with over 1.9 million new cases and nearly 904,000 deaths reported in 2022​.

Bowel cancer is on the rise globally. The World Health Organization projects that by 2040, the annual number of new colorectal cancer cases will rise to 3.2 million.

A new study publishedin the medical journal The Lancet Oncology found rising bowel cancer rates among younger demographics in 27 …