what is it like to die from colon cancer

Kristen was the moving picture of health. She died of colorectal cancer at 38

Kristen McRedmond, stage 4 colon cancer warrior When she was 5 years old, Kristen McRedmond had just taken her last swing upwardly at bat when the umpire called her out. McRedmond turned effectually and told the ump that she was wrong, that shehad hit the brawl. Kristen's mother, Rita McRedmond, laughed as she recalled the story so many years later. "She didn't hitting the ball, but that was her. She ever advocated for herself, fifty-fifty when she was young."

In 2012, Kristen McRedmond was diagnosed with Phase IV colorectal cancer and was initially told she had a few months to alive. McRedmond, who ended up living for five more years, died on Feb. 22 in New York at the age of 38.

Through Facebook and her weblog, as well as a guest speaker to medical organizations across the country, McRedmond, a schoolteacher, never stopped educating others about the disease. McRedmond was meant to receive a Promise Honor for Patient Advocacy in person later in the month at the annual gala of Michael's Mission, an organization dedicated to raising awareness for colorectal cancer in young people. Instead, the honor lay at her funeral in her honor.

As well included was what has been viewed every bit a major success story: the dramatic driblet in overall colorectal cancer rates in adults ages 55 and older. But those findings have been somewhat overshadowed by the uptick in colorectal cancer rates in young adults.Concluding week, mere days later on McRedmond's death, a new study was released past the American Cancer Lodge and the National Cancer Institute, which showed a precipitous increase over the last few decades in colon and rectal cancers in immature and heart-aged adults.

Researchers examined 500,000 cases of colorectal cancer from 1974 to 2013. Although ninety percentage of colorectal cancer cases are diagnosed in people over historic period fifty, the study found that millennials born in 1990 volition have twice the risk of colon cancer and 4 times the risk of rectal cancer than at the aforementioned historic period had they been born in 1950.

A "very sobering" statistic that returns these young people dorsum to colorectal cancer levels for those born in the belatedly 19th century, Rebecca Siegel, lead researcher on the written report, said in a argument.

According to the research, rectal cancer rates have been increasing longer and faster than colon cancer. Rectal cancer rates rose most 3 pct a yr for those in their 20s and 30s, and by 1 by 2 percent a year for adults ages 40 to 54.

Colon cancer rates increased in adults ages twenty to 39 past 1 to two.iv pct a year since the mid-1980s. In adults 40-54, cancer rates increased by 0.5 to 1.three pct a year since the mid-1990s.

Scientists accept known well-nigh the uptick of colorectal cancers in twenty and thirty-somethings through other studies also done on the subject, including a 2010 study in Cancer, co-authored by Dr. Felice Schnoll-Sussman, managing director of the Jay Monahan Heart for Gastrointestinal Wellness at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medicine.

"The last affair that the patient and medico is thinking is that they have rectal cancer," said Schnoll-Sussman. They'll likely aspect the rectal bleeding to hemorrhoids or menstrual periods, Dr. Schnoll-Sussman explained, who was part of McRedmond's care team in New York.

The American Cancer Society states people younger than 55 years old are almost 60 percentage more likely than older adults to be diagnosed when the illness has already reached more advanced stages.

Schnoll-Sussman says the study should serve equally a call to action for physicians who may underestimate the risk of cancer in younger patients and therefore may not diagnose the disease in a timely fashion.

From 2008 to 2012, McRedmond had been living a life many people merely dream most, as a pre-K and first grade teacher at the American Overseas School of Rome. When she went to see her doctors, according to Kristen'southward older sister, Michele McRedmond, she was told on more than one occasion that her rectal haemorrhage was likely caused by her motorino, a difficult ride for many on Rome's bumpy streets.

By the time she received her real diagnosis in Italy, McRedmond's cancer had metastasized. Her doctor recommended she seek treatment in New York where she could also exist close to her family in Yonkers. She left Italy two days later, leaving most of her things behind.

The news didn't stop McRedmond from setting out to brand the best care plan she could over the next five years of her life. She met with three different surgeons before her initial surgery. She researched and took part in clinical trials and cutting edge technologies around genomic testing and attended acupuncture twice a week.

McRedmond besides connected teaching. She planned her chemo appointments on Fridays, so that she could recover over the weekend and not miss fourth dimension with her pre-Yard students. She went for radiation treatments early in the morning or after the schoolhouse ended. For the first two years at her school, just McRedmond's firsthand supervisor knew about her illness, her sister Michele said. She didn't want to be known as the teacher with cancer.

McRedmond documented her experiences over the adjacent five years on social media. She shared everything from specific gene mutations in her body to her joy in still having the ability to strike a yoga headstand on her paddleboard this past summer.

"She was your next-door neighbor. She was your teacher. She was your daughter. She was your granddaughter. She was your best friend," Dr. Schnoll-Sussman said. "People who look at her say, if this tin can happen to her, this tin can happen to anyone.""She tried to help people understand this disease," Dr. Schnoll-Sussman said, adding that McRedmond's souvenir was that she fabricated it easy to relate to her.

While known risk factors for colorectal cancer include obesity, an unhealthy diet and lack of physical activeness, according to Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, the new enquiry does not point to any causes behind the increment in colorectal cancer rates in young people.

"It'southward very hard because we don't know what's contributing to the increment in rates," said Martha Raymond, executive director of Michael'due south Mission, who lost both her parents to colon cancer in the 1970s and '80s.

"I believe we are potentially looking at a different phenomenon and it behooves us to try to understand improve what is really going on with these patients. What is the biological science, since the biology may be very different than regular colon cancer," Schnoll-Sussman said.

"Here you have a young person who potentially did nothing wrong that had a devastating diagnosis, and the final thing nosotros want to do is to brand them feel they did this in some way," she says.Many of her patients, like McRedmond, are fit and healthy, Schnoll-Sussman said. They are non obese or heavy drinkers or smokers and show no family history of colorectal cancer. She says while obesity is likely linked to some cancers, more research needs to be done on how colorectal cancer affects young people.

Instead, advocates and physicians alike stress the importance of knowing one's own body.

"If something feels different. If something has changed. If y'all're someone who never had a trouble with their bowels and of a sudden you have a problem with your bowels. If you've never seen rectal bleeding, and especially if it's persistent. Weight loss, modify in caliber of your stools, you need to present to your physician," Schnoll-Sussman said.

This article first appeared on PBS Newshour. Read the original hither.

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Source: https://meyercancer.weill.cornell.edu/news/2017-03-07/kristen-was-picture-health-she-died-colorectal-cancer-38