Colorectal cancer has overtaken lung, breast, and all other cancers to become the leading cause of cancer death in Americans younger than 50, a reversal from three decades ago, when it ranked fifth, according to a recent research letter.
Since 2005, the death rate from colorectal cancer in those younger than 50 has increased by 1.1 percent per year, even as the number of overall cancer deaths in Americans younger than 50 has dropped by 44 percent. Authors of a research letter published in JAMA found that the disease claimed the top spot in 2023, after analyzing national death records from 1990 through 2023.
