Colorectal cancer is no longer a disease of older people. Three out of four cases diagnosed under age 50 are already advanced stage, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer projects that early-onset colorectal cancer will double roughly every 15 years if current trends continue.
Dr. George Beauregard spent twenty years as a board-certified internist and could count the colorectal cancer patients he'd seen under 50 on one hand. Then his son Patrick was diagnosed at 29. Patrick was a Marine and a runner with no family history and no risk factors, and his first symptom sent him straight to the emergency room with cancer that had already spread to his lungs.
In this episode of Kicking Cancer's Ass, George and Joelle Kaufman get practical about early-onset colorectal cancer screening for people the guidelines leave out. What colon cancer symptoms actually look like in your thirties, which at-home tests you can get without a colonoscopy (fecal immunochemical test, Cologuard, ColoSense, and the new FDA-approved blood test), what a false positive really costs you, and the one rule George says is absolute if any alternative test comes back abnormal.
They also get into where this is coming from. IARC traces the rise to exposures in childhood and early adulthood, which raises an uncomfortable question about a screening system built entirely around what happens after 45.
You'll leave knowing the specific test to request at your next annual physical, and how to push back when you're told you're too young.
George Beauregard is the author of “Reservations for Nine: A Doctor's Family Confronts Cancer.”
Kicking Cancer's Ass is about being the CEO of your own cancer journey.
Topics Discussed
• Why 45 is already too late
• The $24 test to request at your annual physical
• 22.5% of eligible 45-year-olds get screened
• What to do the day a test comes back abnormal
• 17 polyps, and he wasn't eligible
• IARC traces the rise to childhood exposure
• The genetic and lifestyle audit nobody offers you
• Fertility preservation before the first round of chemo
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