Can Pesticide Exposure Increase Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer Risk?

A new study has identified for the first time the exposome footprint—the set of environmental and lifestyle exposures—for colorectal cancer occurring in patients younger than age 50 through epigenetic signatures. By comparatively analyzing DNA methylation patterns in patients under and over 50, the work, published by Maas et al in Nature Medicine, confirms the influence of factors such as diet, education level, and smoking.

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide and the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally, with an incidence and mortality that steadily increase with age. While an estimated 90% of worldwide cases and deaths occur in individuals over 50 years old, in recent years, a disproportionate increase in the incidence of early-onset colorectal cancer has been observed. In the United States, early-onset colorectal cancer is already the leading cause of cancer-related death in men under 50 and the second in women under 50.

“Colorectal cancer in patients under [50] presents particular clinical and pathologic characteristics. However, at the genomic level, the molecular alterations are similar, and no specific alterations have been identified,” explained study coauthor Elena Élez, MD, PhD, Head of the Digestive Tumors Unit at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital and VHIO’s Gastrointestinal Tract Tumors Group.