CLEVELAND — March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. According to the World Health Organization, “colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide, accounting for approximately 10% of all cancer cases.”
Dr. Ronald Charles, assistant Professor of Surgery at University Hospitals' Seidman Cancer Center in the Colorectal Surgery Department, said colorectal cancer incidence has gone down in the last several years overall.
It’s not all good news, though.
“What we have seen, when you take a closer look at the numbers, is that patients under 50, the incidence in the population, has actually started to creep up,” he said.
Because of that, the age for routine screening has now been lowered to 45.
“My personal opinion is, I think diet and lack of exercise and obesity and all of those things are certainly playing a role in seeing those numbers…it really is just an opinion, we don’t quite know exactly why yet to be honest," Charles said.
One of Charles’ patients, Dana Saunders, 61, changed his lifestyle after his stage two colon cancer diagnosis three years ago.
“I changed my diet, became vegan right away, cut everything out, all meat, no chicken and in the beginning, there was no fish or anything,” he said.
While he worked out prior to the diagnosis, Saunders said he exercises with more purpose.
In 2015, his mother died at the age of 75 after her colon cancer spread.
“I know all about the devastation of what cancer can do to a family,” Saunders said.
Charles said family history can be a factor.
“If you’ve had folks your family who’ve had a history of colon cancer or rectal cancer, that should be important and be on your mind for sure," he said.
Early detection and being aware of changes in your body are key.
“If you get screened and you get a colonoscopy, we remove the polyps, your risk of colon cancer goes down pretty dramatically, so we’ve got multiple tools to attack this disease, not just the disease, but even before you get it and prevent you from getting it,” he said.
Here are some symptoms of colorectal cancer according to theAmerican Cancer Society:
- A change in bowel habits, such as diarrhea, constipation, or narrowing of the stool, that lasts for more than a few days
- A feeling that you need to have a bowel movement that’s not relieved by having one
- Rectal bleeding with bright red blood
- Blood in the stool, which might make the stool look dark brown or black
- Cramping or abdominal (belly) pain
- Weakness and fatigue
- Unintended weight loss
As for Saunders, he’s cancer-free and is keeping up with his doctor’s appointments and screenings.
“I pay more attention to what I’m doing, what I’m putting in my body," he said. "The education part—I tell my friends, I tell anybody that I can to tell them about the colon cancer that I had and what to do to try to prevent it.”
