Colon Cancer: Should Young People Worry?

Science Vs

Spotify Studios

Education, Science, Health & Fitness

4.4 • 12.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2026

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Colorectal cancer has long been thought of as a disease of older folks. But that's changing — fast. Rates in older people are actually going down, and more and more people under 50 are getting this disease. And a surprising number of them are dying from it. So what’s going on here? We dig into why young people are getting hit harder. Plus, we often hear that you should watch out for changes in your poo. But what changes?? We’ll find out. We talk to gastrointestinal medical oncologist Dr. Michael Foote and cancer biologist Prof. Ludmil Alexandrov. Find our transcript here: https://tinyurl.com/ScienceVsColonCancer In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Becca’s story (05:52) What the rise looks like (09:06) Is there something different about this cancer? (14:13) What symptoms to look out for (17:41) Why is this happening? (21:34) The hunt for explanations This episode was produced by Michelle Dang, with help from Rose Rimler, Meryl Horn and Ekedi Fausther-Keeys. Wendy Zukerman is our executive producer. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Fact checking by Erica Akiko-Howard. Mix and sound design by Bobby Lord and Bumi Hidaka. Music written by Bobby Lord, Bumi Hidaka, So Wylie, Emma Munger and Peter Leonard. And thank you to Prof. Caitlin Murphy. Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us and tap the bell for episode notifications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Michelle Dang, and I'm filling in for Wendy Zuckerman this week.
0:05.8	And to start off today's episode, I want you to meet Becca Lynch.
0:10.1	Becca lives in Colorado with her dog.
0:12.6	She's 30 years old now, but throughout her 20s, she was leading a pretty hectic life.
0:18.2	Kind of have always been pretty, like, full steam ahead. I've never been, like,
0:24.2	comfortable not being busy. She was getting her master's, growing her career, and being super
0:30.4	active. I go, like, climbing, I go to the gym. I was running a lot. I did a half marathon in 2024.
0:39.0	Playing live music.
0:40.7	Yeah, I have a little duo with a friend of mine that we play around town sometimes.
0:45.7	But a couple of years ago, when Becca was 28, she noticed a change in her body, specifically
0:51.3	in one area, the poo department.
0:54.6	She noticed she was going number two more often, like five to six times a day.
0:59.6	And it wasn't just that.
1:00.8	There were a couple of weird things she saw in these frequent poos.
1:04.7	And fair warning, we're about to get a bit detailed here.
1:08.2	So for one thing, there was blood. It was like a dark, almost mucusy,
1:14.4	kind of thicker, bloody substance that was everywhere, like when I was going to the bathroom.
1:21.3	And it was every single time. And the other thing she noticed is that her poo started to take on a
1:27.0	different shape than usual.
1:29.0	Like thinner size-wise, like pencil thin. I did the thing that everybody does. Like I googled it.
1:35.2	Obviously, I googled all my symptoms. The results spit out quite a list of things it could be.
1:39.8	Ulcerative colitis, IBS, Crohn's disease. Becca thought she should get it checked out, but didn't go in right away.
	...

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