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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Dec 15, 2025; 17(12): 105800
Published online Dec 15, 2025. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i12.105800
Published online Dec 15, 2025. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i12.105800
Early and late-onset colorectal cancer in African Americans during COVID-19
Lakshmi G Chirumamilla, Suryanarayana R Challa, Farshad Aduli, Angesom Kibreab, Adeyinka Laiyemo, Babak Shokrani, Department of Medicine, Gastroenterology Division and Cancer Center, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC 20060, United States
Hassan Brim, Rabia Zafar, Department of Pathology and Cancer Center, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC 20060, United States
Gholamreza Oskrochi, College of Engineering and Technology, American University of the Middle East, Egaila 54200, Kuwait
Mrinalini Deverapalli, Rumaisa Rashid, Mudasir Rashid, Nader Shayegh, Hassan Ashktorab, Department of Medicine and Cancer Center, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC 20060, United States
Zaki A Sherif, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC 20060, United States
John M Carethers, Department of Medicine, Moores Cancer Center, and Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity, University of California San Diego, California, CA 92093, United States
Author contributions: Chirumamilla LG, Devarapalli M, Rashid R, Rashid M, Shayegh N, and Zafar R performed the research; Oskrochi G contributed new reagents and analytic tools; Chirumamilla LG, Brim H, Challa SR, and Ashktorab H analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; Brim H, Challa SR, and Ashktorab H designed the research study; and all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Howard University Internal Review Board, approval No. IRB-12-CMED-76.
Informed consent statement: No consent form was required since chart review with de-identified data was used for the study and adhered to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: Data collected for the study, including de-identified participant data, will be made available to others at publication via a signed data access agreement and at the discretion of the investigators’ approval of the proposed use of such data.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hassan Ashktorab, Professor, Department of Medicine and Cancer Center, Howard University College of Medicine, 520 W Street NW, Washington, DC 20060, United States. hashktorab@howard.edu
Received: February 12, 2025
Revised: May 16, 2025
Accepted: November 7, 2025
Published online: December 15, 2025
Processing time: 302 Days and 15.7 Hours
Revised: May 16, 2025
Accepted: November 7, 2025
Published online: December 15, 2025
Processing time: 302 Days and 15.7 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: The incidence of early-onset colorectal cancer (CRC) is rising, especially in African Americans, who face higher CRC rates and mortality. The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic disrupted screenings, leading to increased early-onset colorectal cancer and late-onset CRC cases. This study highlights how the pandemic worsened racial disparities in CRC outcomes, emphasizing the need for targeted public health interventions. Lower metastasis rates may reflect early detection or stage 4 patients avoiding care and dying outside hospitals. Addressing these inequities is crucial to improving CRC outcomes, particularly among African Americans disproportionately affected by delayed screenings and healthcare disruptions during the pandemic.