Stats

OK, I'm really going to make an effort now. Seriously. I am on a mission.

I knew the first thing I needed to do to educate young(ish) people about colon and rectal cancers, was to find some statistics. If colorectal cancer knows no age, let's see some numbers, right? Well, I'm sitting at Sloan-Kettering (just had a check-up) right now, and that's exactly what I have for you... numbers.

According to the government website, http://www.cancer.gov/, of the cases of colorectal cancer diagnosed from 2003-2007, "Approximately 0.1% were diagnosed under age 20; 1.1% between 20 and 34; 3.8% between 35 and 44; 12.4% between 45 and 54; 19.2% between 55 and 64; 24.4% between 65 and 74; 26.8% between 75 and 84; and 12.2% 85+ years of age."

Now wait! Seems like the percentages for young people are pretty small, huh. Well, you know, if you add up the numbers of those diagnosed under the age of 45, it comes to 5%. That means that 5 out of every 100 people diagnosed with colorectal cancer from 2003 to 2007 were under the age of 45. But wait, there's more. These are the people who have been diagnosed. Doctors don't generally recommend colonoscopies for anyone under the age of 50. That means that for someone between the ages of, say, 20, and 45 to have a colonoscopy / be diagnosed, their cancer has to have progressed to the point that they're feeling symptoms... so they're probably pretty far along... meaning that it's bad.... and the early stages aren't getting caught because they're not feeling symptoms and not having colonoscopies. I haven't collected the statistics yet, but I would guess that that means a higher mortality rate for young people.

Are you seeing what I'm seeing?

Am I rambling too much?

I'll try to explain calmly and sanely. Say both a 20 year old and a 60 year old develop pre-cancerous polyps (how colon cancer starts) in their colons. Six months later the 60 year old has a colonoscopy at the recommendation of their doctor, and the polyp is removed, so no cancer develops. The 20 year old doesn't have a colonoscopy, since colonoscopies are generally recommended for people 50 and over. The polyp grows and develops into cancer. It could take 6 years before the 20 year old feels any symptoms. That's when they finally do a colonoscopy, and the cancer is diagnosed... but by that time it is stage 3 and the chances of death from cancer are greater than if it was discovered early on. It also means that the 20-something will probably have to endure chemotherapy and surgery, when the 60 year old only had to have a small polyp removed while they were (probably) unconscious, or heavily sedated.

5% ain't nothing. Especially when you're one of that 5% and you realize that your colon cancer could have been easily removed as a polyp if caught at an early stage during a colonoscopy.