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points by randycupertino 1 day ago | 0 comments

Study shows US colorectal cancer rates are rising again in almost all age groups after 20+ years of decline. NEJM Evidence study finds rates climbing in every age group even when screening is high.

[–] traceroute66 1 day ago

The US also happens to be a country with a notoriously poor lifestyle and equally poor diet involving foods full of additives either not used or banned elsewhere.

And that's before we get to the subject of the US healthcare system.

Of course colorectal cancer has numerous causes but it is worth considering that when reading the somewhat clickbaity headline.

[–] margalabargala 1 day ago

That's not necessarily the cause here.

While rates in the US may be rising, they are still below countries like Japan, Italy, France, and the UK.

[–] selfmodruntime 1 day ago

All of those countries (except the UK) have a ton of people who are cigarette smokers. For comparison, a third of french adults smoke tobacco. Most US adults who use nicotine don't do so via tobacco, with Japan (the third lowest in the group) having double the cigarette smokers than the US and France having 3-4 times as many.

[–] traceroute66 1 day ago

> While rates in the US may be rising, they are still below countries like Japan, Italy, France, and the UK.

Average life expectancy in Japan is 85 with average 88 female and 82 male.

Meanwhile US is 79 (avg), 81 (f), 76 (m).

So I suspect diet and lifestyle is still more likely to kill you in the US.

[–] reenorap 1 day ago

Deaths from opioids over the last 10+ years has really affected the life expectancy in the US. But no doubt that Japanese lifestyle is much better than the American lifestyle overall, especially at the older ages.

[–] runako 1 day ago

What does this add to a discussion of a change in colorectal cancer rates?

[–] hparadiz 1 day ago

If the rates went down from 2000 to 2022 and then had a small bump into 2023 isn't that just statistical noise?

[–] Aurornis 1 day ago

> The US…

Rates are rising in other countries, too. Global phenomenon.

The rate of cancer deaths is actually growing faster in several other regions like the UK

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42331356/

[–] jvanderbot 1 day ago

That is the most factually correct and constrained headline and GP comment I've seen in a while. Both are literally true as written, and contain no anecdotal, cautionary, or extrapolated suggestions.

[–] legulere 1 day ago

Early-onset case numbers also rise in Europe though.

[–] b800h 1 day ago

Happening in the UK too though.

[–] dofm 1 day ago

If poor nutrition is the cause (not obviously the case) then it's fair to say our diet in the UK is not so far behind the USA in terms of the availability of unhealthy foods. We maybe eat a bit less of it, but we have rising obesity levels. We don't have anywhere near the same number of morbidly obese or super-obese people, but towards the merely very overweight end of the scale we've probably caught up.

Probably catching more cases in screening, though.

There is an obvious factor for cases in 2023, which is that a lot of backlogged cases from 2021 and 2022 will be turning up, and the mere presence of a backlog means delayed diagnosis of newer cases. Even if COVID itself doesn't cause cancers or make them worse (and that's being studied), the pandemic did.

[–] gib444 1 day ago

> a country with a notoriously poor lifestyle and equally poor diet involving foods full of additives

Is mostly true for the UK too

---

I saw a 'diabetes isn't your fault' campaign poster at my GP surgery today. I shook my head! (no mentioning T1 vs T2, so the message is obvious)

[–] bcvvvy 1 day ago

My ex wife’s diabetes was definitely her fault.

[–] parineum 1 day ago

You're third sentence is funny in contrast with the first two.

The "notoriously poor lifestyle" is a oft repeated meme and you're blanket implications of "additives" being causal without naming anything specific or having any sort of evidence supplied. Relying, instead, on the common "knowledge" that's memed around the internet as being self-evident.

The US also has the best healthcare in the world, it's just expensive. People from all over the world come here for treatment.

[–] micromacrofoot 1 day ago

The food theory doesn't align with the fact that it declined from 2000 - 2022...

“The data showed that the age-adjusted incidence rate fell from 55.2 per 100,000 in 2000 to 36.7 in 2022, then rose to 38.3 in 2023.

This is the first time that we have seen an increase in the overall rate since in more than 20 years,”

Please for the love of all things, stop the kneejerk attribution... or at least read the article first.