ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Colorectal cancer has become the leading cause of cancer death in people under the age of 50. Early studies suggest that increased alcohol consumption, ultra-processed foods, and obesity may be contributing factors.
Michelle Poarch was used to some aches and pains as the owner of a horse ranch but when a few of them didn’t go away, she decided to consult a doctor. She was shocked at the cause of her issues, “it’s stage 4 metastatic colon cancer and it’s gone to the liver, lungs, and lymph nodes,” she recalls of the words doctors told her.
Before her diagnosis, Poarch had never undergone a colonoscopy. “I had reached the age, I had just decided… couldn’t happen to me and then it did,” she says. Poarch had no family history of colon cancer.
Beth Carlson is the Lead APP in Gastroenterology at Highland Hospital, she explains the rising rates of colorectal cancer among younger individuals. “Eating healthy, having extra fiber, avoiding high-fat foods or high-processed foods, all of those things we think are contributing to the rise of in younger diagnoses, but we are still doing research,” she explains. That is why the recommendation is for everyone to start getting colonoscopies at age 45.
“Sometimes if you have another GI diagnosis it increases the chance of cancer, we start screening even younger like teens depending on what the diagnosis is for family history,” Carlson adds. “The current guideline say if you have one first-degree or to two second-degree relatives that have been diagnosed with colon cancer, screening is recommended 10 years before the age that they were diagnosed.”
At Highland Hospital, the team encouraged employees and visitors to sign up for screenings. “Most colon cancers come from polyps if we do a colonoscopy, we can remove those polyps so that the cancer never occurs for most people,” Carlson says.
Most insurance plans cover regular screenings at no cost starting at age 45. However, if you experience any symptoms before that, it’s crucial to consult your doctor immediately. “Any weight-loss that’s unexplained, you’re not trying to lose weight but you’re losing weight, change in appetite, change in the caliber of your stool, so it used to be a normal thickness and now it’s pencil thin, any blood that you can see,” Carlson says.
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Highland Hospital pushes for early colon cancer screenings as rates rise in younger adults WHEC.com.
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