CANCER PATIENT Caron Rothstein, center, with her family from left, Jesse (8), Samuel (6), Caron, Ari and Jonah (10) Rothstein in January, two months before finishing her cancer treatment during Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month (March).

 

Cancer can strike at any age—just ask Caron Rothstein

By by Caron Blau Rothstein

article created on: 2009-04-01T00:00:00

I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer last summer at 35. I have a good prognosis and conclude active treatment in March, which was Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.

By April 5-11, which is Young Adults Cancer Awareness week I hope to be celebrating with my family. I am a wife, mother, daughter, co-worker and friend. It may sound overly dramatic, but if it can happen to me, it can happen to you, with this type of cancer or some other life-threatening illness.

People’s first responses to my diagnosis centered on two issues: shock at my relatively young age and curiosity about what prompted me go to the doctor in the first place. The vast majority of people diagnosed with colon cancer are over the age of 50, which is why 50 is the age at which routine colonoscopy screening should begin for most people so long as you do not have a family history. Routine mammograms start at age 40.

If there is a history of colon cancer or other cancer in your family, talk to your doctor now about earlier screenings. If caught early, especially in the polyp stage, colon cancer can be prevented and/or easily cured. The same holds true for other cancers as well. Early detection saves lives.

Women of Ashkenazi (eastern European Jewish) descent have even higher risks of developing many cancers. Ashkenazi women have a one in 40 chance of having a BRCA1 or BRCA2 genetic mutation, compared to a one in 800 chance in the general population. Women with a mutation on either gene have a 36 to 85 percent lifetime risk for breast cancer and a 20 to 60 percent lifetime risk for ovarian cancer. Increased risk for other cancer types, such as pancreatic, prostate, laryngeal, stomach cancer and melanoma may also be associated with a mutation on those genes.

How did I know to see my doctor? I have no family history. I did have symptoms—blood in my stool, and prolonged (several months) changes in my bowel movement patterns. As parents we are used to talking about our children’s poop, but we’re not so comfortable talking about our own “private” bodily functions. Get over it. Your doctors have seen and heard it all, and it is their job to talk with you about all medical concerns, no matter how embarrassing it may be for us.

I had talked with my doctor at length about what I was experiencing. She confirmed the blood in my stool through a simple, painless test in her office and referred me to a gastroenterologist who recommended a colonoscopy as soon as possible. At this point cancer wasn’t mentioned, but I needed the colonoscopy because of the blood in my stool, which can be a symptom a whole host of gastrointestinal illnesses.

I was diagnosed and scheduled for surgery in a matter of weeks. We cancelled our summer vacation and my mother’s pleasure visit turned into a caregiver visit. We explained the diagnosis and treatment to our three children (ages 6, 8, 10) and alerted their teachers and friends’ parents to ensure that they would receive the proper support through this ordeal. The surgery was successful and as I write this, I am completing a six-month course of chemotherapy.

Youth does not immunize us from cancer and other life threatening illnesses, but it does tend to lull many of us into a false sense of security that these are “old people’s diseases,” the diseases of our parents and grandparents, but surely not us. I am living proof that it can, out of nowhere, with no explanation, happen to any one of us.

My middle son was in pre-kindergarten three years ago. Two of the nine mothers that year had breast and lung cancer respectively. Now I have colorectal cancer. That’s three women out of nine in their 30s, seemingly healthy, with three different kinds of cancer. One of my best friends in her early 40s was diagnosed with both thyroid cancer and colon cancer this past year. Just look at Lance Armstrong, Sheryl Crow, Christine Applegate and other young, famous cancer survivors if you need more examples.

These anecdotes represent the reality that young people in the prime of their lives, in the pinnacle of their careers, in the midst of getting married and raising families are being diagnosed every day with cancer.

According to the American Cancer Society nearly 1 in 4 cases of cancer in 2008