MONDAY, Oct. 31, 2005 (HealthDay News) -- Young black Americans are at much higher risk for colon cancer than similarly aged whites or Hispanics, according to two new studies.
The first study included 177 people under age 50 who underwent colonoscopy screening for colon cancer at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, N.Y. The study found that 48 percent of blacks had precancerous colon polyps, compared with 29 percent of whites and 27 percent of Hispanics.
The second study included 1,477 people screened for colorectal cancer at Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn. Of the 177 people identified with colon cancer, the mean age at diagnosis was 67.4 years, and 41 percent were younger than 65 years old. Blacks had a lower age at diagnosis (63.3 years) than whites (69.7 years).
This study also found that blacks were more likely to have right-sided colon cancers than whites.
"We found that one quarter of the cancers in African-Americans were on the right side of the colon, making these patients more likely to present without specific symptoms, and making colonoscopy a better screening test than sigmoidoscopy," Dr. Emmanuel Akinyemi, one of the investigators on the Coney Island study, said in a prepared statement.
Both studies were presented Monday at the American College of Gastroenterology annual meeting, in Honolulu.
More information
The Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation has more about colorectal cancer.
