Urban India Is Seeing A Rise In Colorectal Cancer Cases, A GI And Pancreatic Surgeon Explains Why

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Most people living in cities are used to functioning through discomfort. A skipped meal, late-night dinner, bloating after eating outside food, irregular sleep, long sitting hours, or constant stress often become part of everyday life without much thought. Over time, many physical changes get treated as routine rather than something worth paying attention to.

What makes this particularly concerning is how easily certain symptoms can blend into modern urban lifestyles, especially when everything seems explainable on the surface. Many people continue with their daily schedules assuming the body will eventually adjust on its own.

According to Dr. Kaival Gundavda, GI and Hepatobiliary Pancreatic Surgeon and Consultant at SSO Cancer Hospital, this growing tendency to normalise persistent digestive discomfort is becoming an important concern in urban India today.

A Shift We Are Not Paying Attention To

The increase of Colorectal Cancer in Urban India is not an incidental finding; it has developed as a result of an established pattern of normalising an efficient-looking (on the outside), yet internally disruptive method of life.

Photo Credit: Image is AI-generated

Colorectal Cancer was considered primarily to be a disease of older age groups and relatively rare in India until recently. However, this has changed! There are now more cases in cities, more patients in their 40s, and an expanding incidence of cases being diagnosed at an inappropriate time.

Thus, in addition to a mere increase in the number of cases being diagnosed, there is also a change in the way the disease presents, and in the manner we respond to the disease.

The Problem Is Not Awareness - It Is Interpretation

Even with the increased awareness of health among urban residents, people still show up with colorectal cancer at advanced stages.

This is primarily because the signs and symptoms of colorectal cancer are typically dismissed.

• A change in bowel habits will often be attributed to stress.
• Bloating may be attributed to the foods you eat.
• Fatigue may be related to your long work hours.

People living a fast-paced lifestyle will typically just accept that they are uncomfortable, and when everything seems to have a logical explanation for why it happened, there won't be a sense of urgency to address the discomfort.

Colorectal cancer typically will not create any initial alarms. It will generally present itself in such a manner that it would be difficult to identify until you're well along in the progression of the illness. That's when a lot of the delay begins.

Lifestyle Is Quietly Rewriting Risk

The phenomenon occurring is tightly bound to current living conditions in urban India.

• The diet has shifted toward a low fiber, high-refined, high-processed food intake.
• Physical activity is less.
• There are high levels of ongoing stress.
• Sleep occurs at irregular intervals.

The individual items described may be something that you manage as a single issue. However, when combined, they have a detrimental effect on gut health over time.

Your colon will adapt to these changes over time. What you see evidenced through your clinical practice is not an acute change, but, rather, a cumulative change.
This is not merely an example of a disease arising from lifestyle. this is an example of a disease that results from a particular lifestyle pattern.

The Younger Patient Is No Longer An Exception

The increasing number of younger patients diagnosed with cancer is a more troubling signal than the previously established age-related protective indicators. Historically, parents and caregivers could identify the presence of symptoms, which then prompted them to pursue medical care for their children. They would be referred to a specialist only after they had been misdiagnosed as having some other health issue.

As a result, patients frequently experience a significant delay between becoming symptomatic and receiving the requisite investigations to diagnose their disease; this ultimately means a loss of time due to both misunderstanding the true cause of their symptoms and not appropriately managing them at the time of their initial presentation.

The Missing Link

Colorectal cancer is unique among cancers because it has a much larger window of opportunity for successful early detection.

However, screening for colorectal cancer is not an accepted behaviour in most cities within India. When an individual takes preventative measures regarding their health, colon diagnosis is frequently postponed if there are no symptoms.

The timing of diagnosis is what accounts for this deviation from standard practice; when bowel cancer is detected at an early stage, it has an excellent prognosis, whereas liver cancer, which is diagnosed late, is very difficult to treat.

The differentiating factor between successful early diagnosis and unsuccessful later diagnosis is not the level of skill that is available to the medical provider. The differentiation lies in the amount of time available between onset of symptoms/disease and receiving a definitive diagnosis of the underlying illness or disease.

Rethinking What We Ignore

Our entire outlook will need to shift, not just be aware of, but how to view our gut health. A persistent gut complaint in people is thought to be normal.

We've often compare it to age, yet we should be based on how someone's symptoms manifest.

While urban lifestyles allow for more efficiency, our habits of ignoring signals that come from our bodies continue.

A Disease That Waits - Until We Do

Colorectal cancer doesn't present as something "caught fast". This cancer advances over a prolonged time period and lacks a desire for urgent transformation.

Not to say that there aren't ways it is being advanced, but the fact is that it has steadily progressed even before the recent developments observed in urban areas today.

Photo Credit: Image is AI-generated

The new observations made by urban Indians of this disease's increasing prevalence are not sudden but rather developing from existing habits that were created during the past and not being met in appropriate responses.

In this case, the most noteworthy factor to consider is how early we choose to intervene versus action and not treatment.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for general informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or a qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.