Age as a Predictor of Colonic Adenoma Risk: A Community Study

Abstract

Introduction: Age is an independent risk factor in developing colon cancer and colonic adenomas. Currently, the starting age of colon cancer screening for an average adult without family history or personal history of higher cancer risk begins at age 50 years. At our institution, we collected 4.5 years of colonoscopy quality data in a systematic fashion. We stratified the prevalence of colonic adenomas by age group, and we found the risk of colonic adenomas appears to increase with age in our community. The highest risk group was for those individuals from 70 to 79 years old. Methods: Since 2010, our group has been systematically collecting colonoscopy quality data. The variables include insertion time, withdraw time, number of adenomas found, number of hyperplastic polyps found, size of the largest adenoma found, indications, age, and gender. The adenoma detection rate (ADR) and descriptive statistics for each variable were computed by age group, where the age groups were defined as < 50 years, 50-59 years, 60-69 years, 70-79 years, and ≥ 80 years. Results: A total of 8384 data entries were collected. Table 1 and Figure 1 compare the prevalence of colonic adenomas across age groups.Figure 1Table 1: Adenoma Detection Rate (ADR) and Descriptive Statistics by Age GroupConclusion: The risk of developing colonic adenomas increases with age. Within our cohort, the ADR for those patients less than 50 years old was as high as 32.2%. The highest risk occurred for the age group 70-79 years, where the ADR was 69.1%. The number of adenomas, average size of the largest adenoma, scope insertion time, and scope withdraw time appeared to increase with age, as well. In selected patients, broadening the age category for colon cancer screening for the younger group may be equally important as the elderly group.