Dr. Ana Anderson
ON THE RECORD · 3 verbatim quotes · every quote source-verified
“We've seen, as you said, this trend has been increasing, the incidence of colorectal cancer in individuals under 50 for some time. But we really didn't know why. We didn't know if the disease was different in younger people versus older people. And that's what our study aimed to address,”
Dr. Ana Anderson · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-30
Researchers at Mass General Brigham, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute published a study examining why younger patients are increasingly being diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
“Specifically, we found that stromal cells, the cells that kind of make the connective tissue, are in higher proportion compared to the malignant cancer cells in the younger patient tumors,”
Dr. Ana Anderson · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-30
Anderson said researchers discovered differences in both the cells and gene expression within tumors from younger patients compared with older patients.
“Before we were just trying to look for differences, now we have some differences that we can kind of dig into further to hopefully understand biology, and that could lead to interventions down the road,”
Dr. Ana Anderson · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-30
Anderson said the findings provide new avenues for researchers to investigate and could eventually lead to treatments specifically designed for younger patients.