Colorectal Cancer Archive

News briefs

Eating a diet high in foods tied to inflammation — such as processed meat, sweets, and refined grains — is associated with many health problems, including an increased risk for colon cancer, heart disease, stroke, or diabetes. A Harvard study published online May 7, 2020, by Gastroenterology found another potential risk: Crohn's disease, a condition characterized by areas of inflammation throughout the large and small intestines. Researchers evaluated 30 years' worth of self-reported diet information from more than 208,000 men and women. Diets were scored based on foods that promote inflammation. Compared with people who had the lowest inflammatory diet scores, people with the highest scores had a 51% higher risk for developing Crohn's disease. The risk for Crohn's doubled among people who went from a low- to a high-inflammatory diet during the study. The study is observational and doesn't prove that an inflammatory diet causes Crohn's disease. But with so many other risks associated with foods that promote inflammation, it's important to eat as many foods that fight inflammation as possible. In other words, focus on whole, unprocessed foods with no added sugar — such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes (beans, lentils), fish, poultry, nuts, seeds, a little bit of low-fat dairy, and olive oil.

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Research we're watching

According to a report published March 12 in the journal Cancer, the rate of death from cancer has continued to decline in the United States, dropping on average 1.5% a year from 2001 to 2017. The decline showed up for all ethnic and age groups between 2013 and 2017. The findings were based on cancer incidence data collected by the CDC and the National Cancer Institute.

But not all news was good: the number of new cancer diagnoses in women rose slightly during 2012 to 2016. A more detailed look at cancer deaths among women found a drop in cancer deaths for a majority of the most common cancers, including breast cancer, melanoma, lung cancer, and colorectal cancer. But deaths in women increased when it came to uterine, brain, liver, heart, and pancreatic cancer.

In the journals

Bleeding is a common side effect of anticoagulants (blood thinners). However, people with atrial fibrillation (afib) who take the drug for stroke prevention should not ignore any bleeding from their lower gastrointestinal (GI) tract, as it may signal colon cancer. That study finding was published online Feb. 7, 2020, by the European Heart Journal.

Researchers analyzed 125,418 patients who took anticoagulants for afib. Only 2,576 had lower GI bleeding during the first six months of treatment, regardless of age. Yet those who did experience bleeding had 10 times the risk of being diagnosed with colon cancer during the subsequent year compared with those who hadn't had any bleeding.

Approaches to using laxative solutions for colon cleansing have changed since your last colonoscopy.

Preparing for a colonoscopy isn't fun. Indeed, many people dread the colonoscopy prep more than the colonoscopy itself. Traditionally, you have had to change your diet for a few days, drink quarts of laxative solutions — and then spend hours in the bathroom enduring diarrhea and discomfort as your colon empties. In the past few years, though, the approach to taking laxative solutions has evolved to become a little less unpleasant.

Lower-volume preps

Instead of downing 4 liters of medicated liquid, which was once the standard, most people now need to drink about 2 liters (a bit more than 64 ounces). The reduced volume of laxative fluid is often combined with laxative pills, to help you clear your bowels.

On call

Q. I'm 80 and no longer do colon cancer screening. However, I recently noticed some bleeding from my rectum. Does that change my need for a colonoscopy?

A. Screening for a disease means the person has no symptoms. Since you now have rectal bleeding, a colonoscopy would be considered not a screening test, but a diagnostic test. Whether you have it now or wait to see if more bleeding occurs depends upon many factors. The most important question is whether anything found on the colonoscopy will lead to treatment that improves your quality of life.

News briefs

We already know that a diet rich in red meat is linked to many health problems, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and colorectal cancer. Now a Harvard-led study published online June 12, 2019, by BMJ suggests that boosting your red meat intake increases your risk for early death. Scientists analyzed questionnaire answers about health and diet provided by more than 81,000 healthy men and women between 1986 and 2010. In particular, researchers looked at whether changes in red meat consumption during an eight-year period of the study affected the risk of death eight years later. The findings: An increase of just half a serving of processed red meat per day was associated with a 13% higher risk for dying young from any cause; an additional half-serving of unprocessed red meat increased the risk by 9%. On the flip side, decreasing total red meat consumption and increasing the consumption of nuts, fish, poultry without skin, dairy, eggs, whole grains, or vegetables was tied to a lower risk of death. The takeaway: Try to curb your appetite for red and processed meats like bacon, salami, and hot dogs. Eat more poultry, fish, or plant-based proteins (like beans, lentils, nuts, and seeds), along with the other components of a healthy diet.

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Research we're watching

Popping an aspirin before taking a common test designed to detect blood in the stool, a sign of colon cancer, doesn't improve test accuracy, according to a study published May 7 in JAMA. Some observational studies had found that taking an aspirin before the test improved its sensitivity. Study authors speculated that this could be the case because aspirin's blood-thinning effects made it more likely that blood from abnormalities in the colon would make its way into the stool, where it could be detected.

But this trial, which included 1,200 adults, didn't find the same link. Researchers divided participants into two groups: one that took aspirin before the test, and another that did not.

According to a new guideline, testing should start at age 45, but not everyone needs to have a colonoscopy. Other tests are also available.

Colon cancer screenings for people at average risk for the disease should start at age 45 instead of 50, says a new guideline from the American Cancer Society (ACS).

The change to the screening recommendation, which was published in the May 30 issue of CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, was made because the number of colon cancer cases among adults under age 55 rose 51% from 1994 to 2014, and colon cancer deaths in this age group rose 11% from 2005 to 2015.