Why are more young people getting colorectal cancer? | Prof Mark Jenkins & A/Prof Dan Buchanan

The incidence of colorectal cancer in young adults is increasing in many westernised countries including Australia, the cause of which is currently unknown. Detailing the mutational processes in the tumour could hold the key to unlocking this public health problem.

Professor Mark Jenkins
Director, Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics
University of Melbourne Centre for Cancer Research and School of Population and Global Health

Associate Professor Dan Buchanan
Head, Colorectal Oncogenomics Group
University of Melbourne Centre for Cancer Research and Department of Clinical Pathology

The incidence of colorectal cancer in young adults is increasing in many westernised countries including Australia, the cause of which is currently unknown.  Detailing the mutational processes in the tumour could hold the key to unlocking this public health problem.

Colorectal Cancer (CRC) in young adults—Young Onset Colorectal Cancer (YOCRC) diagnosed <50 years of age—has been increasing in incidence since the mid-1990s in many westernized countries including the Australia. Despite the growing recognition of this problem, the cause of this increased incidence of YOCRC remains unknown, and even more fundamentally, we have limited understanding of what the etiologic mechanisms are that underly, and what the drivers of tumorigenesis are for YOCRC.

We propose that a comprehensive tumour profiling approach in the large pathologically and epidemiologically well-characterized cohort of YOCRC cases diagnosed over a 10-year period from the NIH-funded Colon Cancer Family Registry Cohort will explain the mutational mechanisms underlying the increasing incidence of YOCRC.

Associate Professor Daniel Buchanan is a molecular geneticist who leads a multi-disciplinary research group applying integrative genomic, pathology and epidemiological approaches to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying colorectal cancer tumourigenesis in order to develop more precise tools to identify people/families who have an increased risk of developing colorectal cancer.  He is a NHMRC R.D. Wright Biomedical Career Development Fellow and holds an honorary appointment within the Genomic Medicine and Familial Cancer Centre at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Professor Mark Jenkins is a genetic epidemiologist who leads a research program on the aetiology and prevention of colorectal cancer. This includes risk estimation of colorectal cancer using environmental and a genetic risk factors to enable personalized risk-based screening for population precision public health. He is PI of the international Colon Cancer Family Registry and is an advisor to the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program.