"Gastroenterology": Losing weight to prevent early onset of colorectal cancer should start at the age of 20!

Although he has been away from the clinical frontline for several years, Singularity Cake is still impressed by many patients he has seen before, especially a few young people who have suffered from cancer early on
.

In the electronic medical record system, the words "20 years old, stage IV colorectal cancer" are really shocking
.

In the past, for such patients who developed colorectal cancer early, it was generally thought that genetic factors would cause cancer, such as the famous "Lynch syndrome" and familial polyposis colon, but in recent years, with the change of life>
.

How can we try to avoid early onset of colon cancer? The latest analysis by the German Cancer Research Center team in the journal Gastroenterology recently gave everyone a trick: from the critical time points of 20 and 30 years old, start to pay attention to weight loss! This analysis found that if only early-onset CRC under the age of 55 was limited, reaching the obesity standard (BMI ≥ 30 kg/㎡) at the age of 20, 30, and about 10 years before the study entry was associated with a higher risk of obesity.
The risk of cancer is increased by 88-156% (HR=2.
56/2.
06/1.
88), and successful weight loss will not have such a scary risk [1]
.

Obesity is an important risk factor for colorectal cancer, which has long been a general consensus.
However, in the previous studies that provided relevant data, few specifically delineated age groups to analyze early-onset colorectal cancer in a targeted manner, so there were German scholars.
this analysis
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The source of the analysis data is the German DACHS colorectal cancer screening study involving more than 14,000 people.
The researchers defined colorectal cancer under the age of 55 as early-onset.
A total of 747 patients were selected and 621 patients with similar conditions were selected.
Healthy people were compared, and the median age of both groups was around 48 years old
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The study asked patients and healthy controls to self-report their weight from the age of 20, and to collect statistics at 10-year intervals
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It can be seen from the reported data that the obesity rate of patients increases gradually with age
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The average person is not so exaggerated.
.
.
After adjusting for various confounding factors, the researchers obtained that the patients were obese at the age of 20, 30 and about 10 years before the study entry compared with the control healthy group, and the early Conclusions associated with an 88-156% increased risk of colorectal cancer on the type
.

In addition, the data also showed that overweight (BMI 25-30 kg/m2) at the age of 30 and about 10 years before study entry was also associated with an increased risk of cancer, and every 5 kg/m2 increase in BMI was associated with an increased risk of cancer.
It is associated with a 36-44% increased risk of early-onset colorectal cancer
.

The overall pooled data on the relationship between BMI and early-onset CRC risk at different time points also showed that rectal cancer was more closely associated with obesity: obesity at age 20, 30, and about 10 years before study entry was associated with early-onset rectal cancer, respectively.
Cancer risk was associated with a 241% (HR=3.
41), 151% (HR=2.
51) and 106% (HR=2.
06) increased risk of cancer, whereas obesity was only associated with a 75-93% increased risk of colon cancer
.

The research team said in the paper that this finding is consistent with previous US research data and may suggest different pathogenesis of colon and rectal cancer
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In addition, the subgroup analysis of the study also showed that there was a trend that the risk of bowel cancer was more clearly affected by overweight/obesity in women or people who had not undergone colonoscopy before, but the data were not statistically significant
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As colorectal cancer has become the third most common malignant tumor in the world, stepping up prevention and treatment must be put on the agenda immediately, so this study has at least two significances.
To lose weight early, the second is to carry out popular science education for people who have been overweight to achieve early screening of bowel cancer
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The status of colonoscopy for early diagnosis and early treatment will not be shaken.
As a successful person in weight loss, Singularity Cake’s weight when he was 20 years old seems to have really reached the level of overweight.
.
.
It seems that in the near future, he will also have to suffer from colonoscopy.

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However, compared with cancer, early screening is a trivial matter, and it is also considered to support cancer prevention work.
References: Li H, Boakye D, Chen X, et al.
Associations of body mass index at different ages with early-onset colorectal cancer[ J].
Gastroenterology, 2021.
The author of this articleTan Shuo