Bowel cancer numbers soar among young

MORE young Australians than ever are battling bowel cancer, new data has found.

MORE young Australians than ever are battling bowel cancer, new data has found.

Recent rising international figures prompted The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to investigate local bowel cancer rates.

The figures, released today, found incidences of bowel cancer among all age groups had increased.

But colorectal surgeon Professor Graham Newstead said the number of people under 35 with the disease was "extraordinarily high".

Researchers found the average number of people with bowel cancer between 1992 and 1996 had more than doubled a decade later, in the five-year period from 2002 to 2006.

In older people, the figures had increased by about 13 per cent over the same period.

"In the younger people, they are not only getting a huge increase in the incidence, but they're dying," Prof Newstead told AAP.

Over the research period, bowel cancer deaths claiming young women aged between 20 and 34 had doubled.

In their male counterparts, fatalities had risen by almost 25 per cent.

"They're dying because they present late and they present late because, if you're 30 years of age, you've got a bit of bleeding your GP is likely to say: 'Probably haemorrhoids, don't worry about it'," Prof Newstead said.

"Whereas with older people, everybody... pricks their ears up (when they're bleeding) and says: 'Oh, I better get this checked'."

Prof Newstead couldn't explain why bowel cancer was on the rise, but said it could be linked to the modern diet "filled with hormones and this and that".

"Younger people are also at higher risk of a more aggressive form of the disease and some have a genetic background which predisposes them to a higher risk," he said.

"You should never be told you're too young to have bowel cancer."

More than 14,000 Australians are diagnosed with bowel cancer each year, according to Bowel Cancer Australia.

It's the second most fatal form of cancer in the country.

Symptoms like blood in the bowel motion, recent and persistent changes in bowel habit, and unexplained weight loss should prompt people to talk to their doctor, Prof Newstead said.