Young Adults Face Alarming Rise in Colorectal Cancer as Research Funding Gets Slashed

An Unexpected Diagnosis Becomes a Growing Trend

At 44, HuffPost journalist Graeme Demianyk thought he was in good health. He ran marathons, went to the gym regularly, and maintained a decent diet. So when his August 2023 colonoscopy revealed colon cancer, the diagnosis felt surreal. The "not great" news came in August 2023 — colon cancer. I was 44 and in pretty good health. I went to the gym regularly and ran marathons. (OK, one marathon.) My diet was pretty good.

Demianyk's experience reflects a troubling national trend. In young people, the incidence of colorectal cancer, which is what colon cancer is grouped within, is rising. Generation Z, millennials and Generation X are more likely to develop it during their 30s and 40s than earlier generations, which is worrying enough. The statistics are stark: according to a 2024 report from the ACS, colorectal cancer has moved up from being the fourth leading cause of cancer death in both men and women under age 50 two decades ago to first in men and second in women.

Diana Zepeda, a finance professional from Washington D.C., knows this reality all too well. Diana, a finance professional from Washington, D.C., was 33 when she was "frozen with terror" by her colorectal cancer diagnosis eight years ago. Her initial symptoms—stomach cramps—seemed innocuous, something she initially attributed to eating lunch from food trucks. Diana recounts how she'd mentioned in an interview that she thought her early symptoms – largely stomach cramps – were just because she was eating lunch regularly from a food truck.

The Scale of the Problem

The numbers paint a disturbing picture of this emerging health crisis. The incidence of colorectal cancer in people ages 20-49 has increased alarmingly over the past three decades in the U.S. and other high-income countries. Medical professionals are witnessing this shift firsthand. There was one week when all of the seven patients the practice saw who were diagnosed with rectal cancer were young; the oldest was 35. The youngest colorectal cancer patient diagnosed at this location in recent months was 18.

What makes this trend particularly concerning is that many cases of colorectal cancer in young adults are diagnosed when they have already progressed to an advanced stage. Young adults with colorectal cancer typically have more advanced disease at diagnosis than those over 50. This delay in diagnosis occurs partly because a lack of awareness about early-onset disease and its symptoms can contribute to a delayed diagnosis. Another contributing factor is that young adults are less likely to have a primary health care professional.

The medical community is scrambling to understand what's driving this increase. The number of colorectal cancer cases is increasing at an alarming rate for Generation Z, Millennials, and Generation X—young adults in their mid-20s to late 50s. And while this surge remains a perplexing medical mystery for clinicians, diet and lifestyle are suspected to be driving factors of this disease.

Funding Cuts Threaten Progress

Just as this health crisis demands urgent attention, the fight against cancer faces unprecedented setbacks. But it comes at a time when cancer experts are alarmed by historically significant cuts in federal budgets, largely driven by the Trump administration's crackdown on "woke" (The New York Times wrote in September, "Trump Is Shutting Down the War on Cancer"), and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s anti-science beliefs jeopardizing breakthroughs.

The scope of these cuts is staggering. In practice, the cuts meant abandoning more than $800 million worth of research into cancers and viruses that often affect LGBTQ minority groups, setting back efforts to fight sexually transmitted infections. The cuts disrupted hundreds of clinical trials, research shows. A JAMA Internal Medicine research letter published in November found that 383 NIH-supported clinical trials lost funding from Feb. 28 to Aug. 15. The grant funding disruptions impacted approximately 1 in 30 clinical trials and more than 74,000 trial participants.

The National Cancer Institute has been particularly hard hit. At least 47 grants that NCI awarded were terminated in the first month. Meanwhile, the president's proposed budget for the next fiscal year calls for a more-than-37-percent cut to the National Cancer Institute — the N.I.H. agency that leads most of the nation's cancer research — reducing it to $4.5 billion from $7.2 billion.

A Critical Moment for Action

The timing couldn't be worse. It couldn't come at a worse time, especially since clinicians and researchers are excited about emerging treatments for colorectal cancer. Young people facing cancer diagnoses need hope, and research provides that lifeline. In