Having a cousin or grandfather with colon cancer increases the risk

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By Steven RheinbergHealthDay reporter

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 15, 2021 (HealthDay News) – The risk of colon cancer is in families, and not just a parent or sibling who has had the disease should worry you.

If you have a second- or third-degree relative who had colon cancer at an early age, your chances of having the disease increase significantly, a new study finds.

First-degree relatives include parents, children, and siblings. Second-degree relatives include aunts, uncles, grandparents, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Third-degree relatives include first cousins, great-grandparents and great-grandchildren.

“Our study provides a new insight into the level of risk for more distant relatives of colorectal cancer cases, and in particular for relatives of cases that were diagnosed before the age of 50,” said researcher Heather Ox-Balcom, associate professor. in Epidemiology and Environmental Health with the University of Buffalo (NY) School of Public Health and Health Professions.

“This work is important given the rising rates of early-onset colorectal cancer,” she said in a statement to the university. Researchers at the University of Buffalo and the University of Utah cited early onset colon cancer as cases diagnosed before the age of 50.

Relatives of the first degree of someone diagnosed with early colon cancer are six times more likely to develop colon cancer before the age of 50; Second-degree relatives are three times more likely, and third-degree relatives are about 1.5 times more likely, investigators found.

For the study, they reviewed more than 1,500 cases of early-onset colon cancer in the Utah Cancer Registry.

The researchers also found that people have a 2.6-fold higher risk of colon cancer at any age if they have a first-degree relative with early-onset colon cancer. And the risk is about twice as high for second-degree relatives and 1.3 times as high for third-degree relatives.

These findings suggest that screening for a colonoscopy before the age of 50 may be beneficial for second-degree relatives and possibly third-degree relatives of someone who has developed colon cancer, not just close family members.