Bowel cancer deaths among young women are set to rise by 40% due to obesity and alcohol, research suggests

Obesity and alcohol are driving an increase in bowel cancer death rates among young people, researchers have warned.

A study predicts a rise of nearly 40 per cent in bowel cancer deaths among women aged between 25 and 49 this year.

The disease is the third biggest cancer killer among men after lung and prostate, and the third biggest after breast and lung cancer in women.

In the overall British population, bowel cancer deaths are expected to fall, but are predicted to rise for those aged from 25-49 amid warnings unhealthy lifestyles are contributing to cancer at an early age. The study suggests bowel cancer death rates in this age group will rise by 26 per cent for men and 39 per cent for women compared to 2018.

It follows the death of podcast host Dame Deborah James, who passed away in 2022 at the age of 40 after being diagnosed with bowel cancer six years earlier.

Professor Sir Mike Richards says that there may be a need to reduce the threshold at which people are sent to have a colonoscopy diagnostic

Dr Panagiota Mitrou, at the World Cancer Research Fund, said the figures were ‘alarming’, adding: ‘The reasons for the sex differences are unclear but need to be investigated in more detail.’

Professor Carlo La Vecchia, from the University of Milan, said key factors include obesity and related health conditions, such as high blood sugar levels and diabetes.

He also cited heavier alcohol drinking and reductions in physical activity, adding: ‘Countries where there has been a reduction in alcohol consumption, such as France and Italy, have not experienced such marked rises in death rates from this cancer. Early onset bowel cancer tends to be more aggressive, with lower survival rates.’

Writing in Annals of Oncology, the team called for governments to extend bowel cancer screening to those aged 45. In England, people aged 60 to 74 are invited for screening, with the programme expanding to those aged 50 to 59.

But Professor Sir Mike Richards, former national cancer director at the Department of Health and Social Care, said there is also a need to reduce the threshold at which people are sent to have a colonoscopy diagnostic test for bowel cancer. The NHS in England set the threshold for the FIT stool test at 120 micrograms of blood per gram of faeces, but Professor Richards says this should be 80 – as in Scotland – or lower.

The Department of Health said: ‘The independent UK National Screening Committee considers scientific evidence and makes a decision on age cohorts to ensure a programme does more good than harm. Harms from screening can occur through over-diagnosis.’