Done JZ, Fang SH. Young-onset colorectal cancer: A review. World J Gastrointest Oncol 2021; 13(8): 856-866 [PMID: 34457191 DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.v13.i8.856]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Sandy H Fang, MD, Surgeon, Department of Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, 600 North Wolfe Street, Ravitch Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery, Blalock 618, Baltimore, MD 21287, United States. sfang7@jhmi.edu
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Aug 15, 2021; 13(8): 856-866 Published online Aug 15, 2021. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v13.i8.856
Young-onset colorectal cancer: A review
Joy Zhou Done, Sandy H Fang
Joy Zhou Done, Department of Surgery, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD 21287, United States
Sandy H Fang, Department of Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD 21287, United States
Author contributions: Done JZ and Fang SH contributed equally to this work; Done JZ and Fang SH performed independent literature searches for this systematic review, analyzed the literature/data, and wrote the manuscript; all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Neither Dr. Done JZ nor Dr. Fang SH have any conflicts of interest to disclose for this paper.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sandy H Fang, MD, Surgeon, Department of Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, 600 North Wolfe Street, Ravitch Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery, Blalock 618, Baltimore, MD 21287, United States. sfang7@jhmi.edu
Received: February 21, 2021 Peer-review started: February 21, 2021 First decision: April 19, 2021 Revised: April 30, 2021 Accepted: July 19, 2021 Article in press: July 19, 2021 Published online: August 15, 2021 Processing time: 174 Days and 1.1 Hours
Abstract
Despite the general decrease in overall incidence of colorectal cancer since the early 1990s, the incidence of colorectal cancer in patients less than 50 years old has nearly doubled. A systematic review was performed using the PubMed database (2011-2020) and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2011-2021) to identify studies (published in English) evaluating epidemiologic, clinical, hereditary, and molecular features; as well as evaluation, management, and prognosis of young-onset colorectal cancer patients. Our search yielded a total of 3401 articles, after applying our inclusion criteria. We fully reviewed 94 full-length studies. This systematic review demonstrates the increasing incidence of young-onset colorectal cancer and highlights the importance of being hypervigilant for the differential diagnosis colorectal cancer when evaluating a young adult who presents with gastrointestinal symptoms.
Core Tip: Despite the overall decreasing incidence of colorectal cancer, the incidence of young-onset colorectal cancer is on the rise. Identifying genetic, molecular, clinical, behavioral patient characteristics of this subset population is vital in the timely diagnosis and customized management of these patients.
