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Hello and welcome to The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Sunday considered a global health crisis.

Scientists are perplexed at how perfectly healthy people under 50 in the prime of their lives are developing and

dying of aggressive cancers at younger ages more quickly than ever.

All rates of gastrointestinal cancer in populations 65 and older are declining,

younger people are seeing the biggest rise,

as colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer deaths in men under the age of 50 and second

among women of the same age. To learn more about how the medical and research

community is tackling this troubling development is Dr Kimmy Ang, the founding director of the

young onset colorectal cancer center and co-director of the colon and rectal cancer

center at Dana Farbur. Thanks for joining us, Kimmy.

Thank you for having me.

Since 1994, cases of young onset colorectal cancer have increased by 51%

according to the National Cancer Institute.

Why is cancer rising in younger people and why in this organ?

That is the million dollar question that a lot of scientists and researchers are working to try and answer.

So we know overall the silver lining is that colorectal cancer has been declining in incidence and mortality if you consider people of all

ages.

And that is largely due to successes of screening programs, better adherence to screening and

also improved treatments.

But this same benefit and improvement has not been seen in people under the age of 50.

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