WASHINGTON: Actor Chadwick Boseman's death from colon cancer at the age of 43 has highlighted the growing rate of this disease among younger adults, who are often diagnosed at later stages.
According to Kimmie Ng, director of Dana-Farber's Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center in Boston, it shows how important it is for more research into what is driving the rise, as well as greater awareness and screening.
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"We are losing way too many young lives to this disease without a clear understanding of what the causes are," she told AFP.
READ: Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman dies at 43
The suspicion is that environmental factors, such as shifts in diets and lifestyle, could be behind the increase.
While studies are underway, US statistics are alarming, and the trend is similar in Europe.
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Since 1994, US cases of young-onset colorectal cancer – defined as a diagnosis before the age of 50 – have increased by 50 per cent.
Colorectal cancers will affect more than 140,000 Americans in 2020, with under-50s accounting for about 11 per cent of colon cancers and 18 percent of rectal cancers.
By the year 2030 the rates among this age group are expected to double and quadruple, respectively.
As a result, the American Cancer Society recently updated its advice, saying most people should get screened at 45, not 50.
Symptoms to watch for include changes to bowel habits that last more than a few days, such as diarrhoea, constipation or narrow stool.
They also include feelings of having to pass stool that don't go away by doing so, rectal bleeding or blood in the stool, abdominal pain, weakness, fatigue and weight loss.
A patient has an inflamed lump on his back – a development due to terminal colon cancer. (File photo: AFP/Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
WORST PAIN IN LIFE
For David Thau, it took shooting pain in the abdomen – the worst he had ever felt in his life – for him to go see his primary care doctor in June 2019.
The Washington-based political consultant, then 34, had been ignoring the blood that had recently been appearing in his stool.
"I've always been the kind of person who just says: 'Well, I don't need to go to the doctor,'" he told AFP.
A former high school athlete, he was otherwise healthy with no family history of colon cancer.
Thau's doctor told him he might have an ulcer or appendicitis, so he checked into an emergency room.
A CT scan detected a 7.5cm mass that almost completely blocked his colon.
He was diagnosed as having Stage 3C cancer, the last before a cancer has metastasised, and days later had surgery to remove the tumour.
Fortunately, surgeons were able to extract it using small incisions and he did not require an ileostomy – a surgical opening to a bag that holds stool.
For the next six months he travelled to Boston every other week for chemotherapy, working full-time throughout this period – an extra challenge for younger patients who aren't retired.
"I had to freeze my sperm," added Thau, since he and his wife were planning to have children and the treatment can cause sterility.
In February, doctors said his cancer was gone, but he still requires routine check-ups.
INITIAL MISDIAGNOSIS
Ghazala Siddiqui, from Houston, went to an emergency room in March 2018 after finding it impossible to pass stool, despite using laxatives.
Doctors performed an X-ray on the mother of two, then 41, but misdiagnosed her case as severe constipation and sent her home.
It wasn't until she approached a specialist that colon cancer was identified.
She needed 23 gruelling radiation sessions at MD Anderson Cancer Center to shrink the Stage 3 tumour down to size, before it coRead More – Source
WASHINGTON: Actor Chadwick Boseman's death from colon cancer at the age of 43 has highlighted the growing rate of this disease among younger adults, who are often diagnosed at later stages.
According to Kimmie Ng, director of Dana-Farber's Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center in Boston, it shows how important it is for more research into what is driving the rise, as well as greater awareness and screening.
Advertisement
Advertisement
"We are losing way too many young lives to this disease without a clear understanding of what the causes are," she told AFP.
READ: Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman dies at 43
The suspicion is that environmental factors, such as shifts in diets and lifestyle, could be behind the increase.
While studies are underway, US statistics are alarming, and the trend is similar in Europe.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Since 1994, US cases of young-onset colorectal cancer – defined as a diagnosis before the age of 50 – have increased by 50 per cent.
Colorectal cancers will affect more than 140,000 Americans in 2020, with under-50s accounting for about 11 per cent of colon cancers and 18 percent of rectal cancers.
By the year 2030 the rates among this age group are expected to double and quadruple, respectively.
As a result, the American Cancer Society recently updated its advice, saying most people should get screened at 45, not 50.
Symptoms to watch for include changes to bowel habits that last more than a few days, such as diarrhoea, constipation or narrow stool.
They also include feelings of having to pass stool that don't go away by doing so, rectal bleeding or blood in the stool, abdominal pain, weakness, fatigue and weight loss.
A patient has an inflamed lump on his back – a development due to terminal colon cancer. (File photo: AFP/Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
WORST PAIN IN LIFE
For David Thau, it took shooting pain in the abdomen – the worst he had ever felt in his life – for him to go see his primary care doctor in June 2019.
The Washington-based political consultant, then 34, had been ignoring the blood that had recently been appearing in his stool.
"I've always been the kind of person who just says: 'Well, I don't need to go to the doctor,'" he told AFP.
A former high school athlete, he was otherwise healthy with no family history of colon cancer.
Thau's doctor told him he might have an ulcer or appendicitis, so he checked into an emergency room.
A CT scan detected a 7.5cm mass that almost completely blocked his colon.
He was diagnosed as having Stage 3C cancer, the last before a cancer has metastasised, and days later had surgery to remove the tumour.
Fortunately, surgeons were able to extract it using small incisions and he did not require an ileostomy – a surgical opening to a bag that holds stool.
For the next six months he travelled to Boston every other week for chemotherapy, working full-time throughout this period – an extra challenge for younger patients who aren't retired.
"I had to freeze my sperm," added Thau, since he and his wife were planning to have children and the treatment can cause sterility.
In February, doctors said his cancer was gone, but he still requires routine check-ups.
INITIAL MISDIAGNOSIS
Ghazala Siddiqui, from Houston, went to an emergency room in March 2018 after finding it impossible to pass stool, despite using laxatives.
Doctors performed an X-ray on the mother of two, then 41, but misdiagnosed her case as severe constipation and sent her home.
It wasn't until she approached a specialist that colon cancer was identified.
She needed 23 gruelling radiation sessions at MD Anderson Cancer Center to shrink the Stage 3 tumour down to size, before it coRead More – Source
