CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Colorectal cancer has become the leading cause of cancer deaths among Americans younger than 50, surpassing breast cancer and other major cancers in that age group, according to new national data.
More than 1.2 million U.S. adults under 50 died of cancer between 1990 and 2023. In 2023 alone, nearly 4,000 people ages 20 to 49 died from colorectal cancer — slightly more than from breast cancer and significantly more than from other common cancers among younger adults.
While death rates for most major cancers in younger adults have declined over the past three decades, colorectal cancer is the only leading cancer with increasing mortality in that population. Once the fifth-leading cause of cancer death among younger adults in the early 1990s, it now ranks first for men and women combined…