What Are Known Risk Factors of Colorectal Cancer?
More Programs and Publications Featuring Dr. Fola May
In this program:
Colorectal cancer has some known risk factors. Dr. Fola May from UCLA Health shares risk factors that show a higher likelihood of colorectal cancer incidence and advice for decreasing your risk.
Transcript
Broderick Rodell:
So, Dr. May, what are the known risk factors seen in colorectal cancer? And also with that, can you relate them to specific populations?
Dr. Fola May:
Yeah, absolutely. The biggest risk factor for colorectal cancer is age, as we get older, we're more likely to develop those little polyps or outgrowths in the lining of the colon, and as I mentioned before, over time, a small percentage of polyps will progress into cancer, so those polyps are something that 50 percent of the population will develop. But you're more likely to develop them when you're older, in your 40s or 50s or 60s, so polyps and age are the biggest risk factors for colorectal cancer. After that, the other risk factor is family history, and it's really important to share your history within your family of cancers because, unfortunately, sometimes there are genetic mutations or genetic profiles that increase the risk of cancers, including colorectal cancers in the family. So I like to remind people that if you have one or more family members with colorectal cancer, your chances of getting colorectal cancer, especially if they were young when they had colorectal cancer can be two, three, four times higher than the average-risked individual. So anyone who has a family history of colorectal cancer, we really urge that you share that in families. These shouldn't be secrets, you can actually save your family members’ lives by sharing these histories and making sure that they get the appropriate care and they get screened earlier, because we do screen people earlier if there's a family history, but also we want to make sure that individuals are aware of their own personal risk.
I'll also mention a few lifestyle factors, things that we can change because you can't really change your age, you can't change your family history, but you can change little things about how you live your life to lower your risk of colorectal cancer. Colorectal cancer is associated with a high intake of red meat, processed meat, people who have low fiber, low calcium, or low vitamin D are more likely to get colorectal cancer. There are also higher rates of colorectal cancer in people who smoke tobacco, who drink a lot of alcohol, so excessive amounts of alcohol, and also in individuals who have obesity and diabetes. So these are things that we actually can do, as you mentioned, taking control, paying attention to your body and your lifestyle. These are things that we can do to reduce our risk.
Broderick Rodell:
Thank you for addressing those. And by the way, when I turned 45, I’ve been getting my colorectal cancer test every year since then.
Dr. Fola May:
Fantastic, and it's important because they just lowered that screening guideline, so before it was just African Americans who were recommended to get screened at 45. Now we're recommending everyone gets screened at 45. African Americans have the highest risk of colorectal cancer. We, unfortunately, are more likely to get colorectal cancer and to die from it, so that's why it's especially important that our community gets screened and gets screened at 45.
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