Colon cancer is getting younger. Watch out for these symptoms to help lower your risk.

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Colon cancer just got younger

Do you know the subtle signs and symptoms to look out for if you have colon cancer? Would you want to know, based on the research?

Even before March, which is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month by the way, Business Insider has been laser-focused on covering how colon cancer not only affects our bodies, but our wallets. Our reporters and editors have spoken with over 100 patients, clinicians, researchers, and economists to analyze and document how this disease affects families, careers, and financial stability in younger patients.

This effort comes as colon cancer has officially been named the deadliest cancer in the US, replacing breast cancer and lung cancer, and shocking cancer researchers. And while the absolute number of colon cancer deaths in people under 50 is still small, the trend for young people with colon cancer is "going in the wrong direction," health correspondent Hilary Brueck writes.

Researchers believe that an unidentified change is driving the rise in colon cancer diagnoses. "It's some either environmental or behavioral exposure that was introduced in the last half of the 20th century," cancer epidemiologist Rebecca Siegel told Business Insider. "Whatever this change in exposure was, it's having a much larger influence on cancer development in the rectum."

To lower your risk, here are a few resources to read and bookmark:

• Take these steps to lower your risk of colon cancer at any age
• The early taboo symptoms millennials are afraid to tell their doctors about
• Colonoscopies are no fun. These at-home colon cancer screenings offer a shortcut.
• What colon cancer really costs in your 30s
• 5 young colon cancer patients share their lessons from living with the disease