Name: Scientists investigate why more young people are getting bowel cancer | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-01-07T17:17:38.000Z
Duration: 3 min 38 s
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Here, scientists are hoping that tens of thousands of bowel cancer samples, some of which date back to the 1960s, will help them work out why there's been a rise in the number of young people diagnosed with the disease.

Scientists are planning to test thousands of samples that have been stored in a hospital basement for more than 60 years.

Let's speak to Professor Sarah Berry, professor of Nutritional Sciences at King's College London.

Let's first of all look at the issue here.

Are we seeing an increase in the number of younger people impacted here?

Yeah, so we're seeing quite an alarming increase in the number of individuals below 50 years of age who are being diagnosed with colon cancer.

We call this early onset colorectal cancer.

And we see about a twofold increase in those born in the 1990s versus those born in in the 1950s.

And annually the prevalences are increasing by about 4%.

Now, I do think it's important just to put this into context of absolute numbers so that we don't scare people too much.

Per 100,000 people, that does mean about 12 cases per 100,000.

But it is worrying the rate at which it is increasing.

And do we have any idea what possible theories or reasons behind this?

Yeah, so there's some reasonably well known risk factors for colon cancer, and particularly early onset colorectal cancer.

So, for example, air pollutants, microplastics.

There's established risk factors related to our diet, such as processed red meat, sugar, sweetened beverages, a diet low in fiber, a diet high in sugar.

We also know alcohol increases our risk and we know that living with obesity significantly increases our risk.

But where it gets really interesting is that we're starting to understand that many of these risk factors may be acting through our gut microbes, microbiome.

And this is something we're also working on at King's College London, in collaboration with Zoe, from our large Predict studies, doing very similar research to this fascinating research that the Boomer study is doing as well.

Because it's easier to get tested as an older person, presumably, than a younger person.

Yeah, so this is where we differ in the UK to countries like the us, where it's very common to be tested for colon cancer.

There's different ways that you can be tested.

You can be tested in a more invasive way, where they actually kind of put almost like a probe up your bottom to have a look at the cells there, or you can be tested to look whether there's the presence of blood in your poo.

Now, this is done over a certain age in the UK, but

And this is where it's very difficult because with colon cancer in particular, it presents at quite late stages in the disease.

So the time at which you might notice changes like blood stool, like abdominal pain, like differences in your bowel habits, quite often that's quite late in the disease.

The good news is that if it is caught early, it is very treatable in those under 50.

And I think something else that we need to also take away is quite a positive thing with this is that many cases of colorectal cancer can be preventable through diet and lifestyle choices.

We know that about 60 to 70% of colorectal cases are accountable due to diet and lifestyle, the kind of factors that I just mentioned, mentioned.

Sarah Barry, thank you very much for coming on the program.