MARK LEWIS: Hi, my name is Dr. Mark Lewis. I'm a gastrointestinal oncologist. I'm the sort of doctor you never want to fulfill because should you come into my office, it means you could have cancer, and in my office, which means you could have colon cancer. Why is that this relevant? It's relevant because colon and rectal cancer are affecting younger and younger people. If you take a look at this, it doesn't mean it's definitely going to occur to you, but there are a number of things you must know.
First, age is just not as protective as we once thought or hoped. It is entirely possible to get colon cancer under the age of 45, so how do you understand when to fret? Well, you understand your body higher than anyone else since you live in it 24/7, so should you are experiencing recent onset abdominal pain and cramping, especially while you go to the lavatory, it could actually be worrying.
Blood within the stool normally indicates hemorrhoids. But that's hard to assume, and so the barrier could be very low – I realize it's uncomfortable – to refer to your GP and even ask for a rectal exam. There are also stool tests you possibly can do at home, not only for blood, but additionally for precancerous DNA within the stool, that may really inform you whether you would like a colonoscopy now or whether you possibly can watch it.
And finally, your loved ones history matters. It's about you and likewise the genes you've inherited. So should you know that folks in your loved ones have had colon cancer across the age of fifty, we'd normally take about 10 years off that and begin screening you even sooner than your peers. So, to sum up, screening is ideally about protecting you, but diagnosis is about taking a look at the issues you discover in your individual body, so the 2 can work together to present you one of the best possible consequence. I wish you one of the best of health.
MARK LEWIS: Hi. My name is Dr. Mark Lewis. I'm a gastrointestinal oncologist. And I'm here to discuss some changing trends in colon cancer, and what they mean for patients, and the way patients can advocate for themselves. We're here at the most important cancer conference of the yr, and there are 4 abstracts or presentations that specifically address the changing trends in colon cancer.
One thing that should be said right in the beginning is that many individuals consider cancer on the whole as a disease of old age. Cells multiply and undergo cycle after cycle, in order that they usually tend to accumulate defects over time. And that is usually true. Perhaps most worryingly, we are able to not make that assumption about age and the likelihood of developing colon cancer, because all 4 studies have shown us, in their very own way, that things are entering into the fitting direction for patients over 50, but within the improper direction for people under 50. I do know that's scary, and I don't need to create panic here. I would like to inform you what you possibly can do about it.
One of the things we discovered doing these studies was attempting to search for demographic cues. OK. It's one thing to say you're young, you're under 50, which is traditionally the age we screen for colon cancer. What are you able to do beyond that? I feel the group that's most in danger is women. So should you take a look at the typical age of all my patients in my practice, the typical age of all my patients with GI cancer is 68. And yet one in seven of my patients is a young adult with colon cancer, and I actually see more women than men.
And what I see time and again – and this can be a hindsight bias on my part – is that they've problems. They have abdominal or pelvic pain. Sometimes they even have bleeding during bowel movements. And yet they're told they've a gynecological problem.
I'd say to young women particularly, please advocate for yourself. If you refer to your doctor, say your GP or your gynecologist, and you could have an issue that seems out of proportion to what you understand about your body and your cycle, then it must be investigated. I can't inform you how over and over I even have seen young adults with colon cancer – and that is my job – who've been told, quite dismissively, that it's just hemorrhoids. They're too young to have cancer. Unfortunately, that sentence not carries any weight.
So what are you able to do? Well, to start with, as I said, you're the expert on your individual body. You know what patterns are abnormal in you and will seek medical attention for them. Secondly, you must know your loved ones history. There is unquestionably a heredity component at play here.
And as a general rule, we take the youngest person in your loved ones affected by colon cancer or rectal cancer. We subtract a minimum of 10 years from their age. And we ask you to begin screening from that time. This is different from the advice for the overall population. You may know that lately we've got lowered the typical age for risk screening from 50 to 45.
Now, at age 45, with none medical information or risk, you possibly can go to your doctor and have a colonoscopy. Why is that this so effective? Colonoscopy is probably the one cancer screening tool we've got that can also be preventive. For example, if a young woman starts getting mammograms at age 40, the mammogram can show her that there's a problem, resembling a tumor forming within the breast. It doesn't really eliminate the issue. It just identifies it. Colonoscopy can do each.
A colonoscopist, normally a gastroenterologist, sometimes a surgeon, very rarely a family doctor, can each see and take away a polyp. And by doing so, they interrupt the polyp's disease process. It cannot turn out to be cancerous whether it is faraway from your body. So, to sum up: know yourself, know your loved ones, and know at what age you must start screening.