Temporal trends in incidence of pancreas and colorectal adenocarcinoma in the US, 2000-2021

A retrospective cohort study using data from the SEER database (2000-2021) included 275,273 cases of pancreas cancer and 1,215,200 cases of colorectal cancer. The annual percentage change (APC) for pancreatic cancer was 4.35 in the age group 15-34 years, which was significantly higher than the APCs of 1.74 (p=0.007) in the age group 55 years and older and of 1.54 (p=0.004) in the age group 35-54 years. The APC for colorectal cancer was -3.31 in the age group 55 years and older, which was significantly lower than the APCs of 1.75 (p=0.001) in the age group 15-34 years and of 0,78 (p=0.002) in the age group 35—54 years. The authors conclude that these findings suggest that, during the past two decades, the incidence of pancreatic adenocarcinoma has increased among all age groups, whereas that of colorectal adenocarcinoma has increased among younger age groups. Clinicians should be aware of this trend when evaluating younger patients with relevant symptoms.