John M. Sayles, MD, highlights the increased risk of colorectal cancer among younger people, and how we can improve diagnosis and the subsequent treatment options.
Hi, I'm John Sayles. I'm a colorectal surgeon here at Sentara Leigh Hospital. Been in the area for over 10 years, probably more like 15 years. So today I'm here to talk about colorectal cancer, especially in its incidence, is rising in younger people. There has been actually improvement in the incidence of colorectal cancer in overall population, but for some reason in the younger population is increasing that specifically under the age of 50 and even people in their thirties. Now there's a rising instance of people getting colorectal cancer, especially rectal cancers and left sided cancers. Exactly why that's happening, we're not sure, but that's what we're here today to talk about, to try toe, improve our ability to diagnose that and to really know that this is a worsening problem in this age group. I think part of the problem is that younger people tend Thio, not look at their symptoms so much and think that it's a benign process even though it's not. That's both. I think from the patient's standpoint as well as some of the physicians as well. We tend to think that younger people don't have the problems that older people will and so sometimes we're biased to that as well. And so I think we need to recognize that as well and make sure that people that have symptoms of coming to see us, that we're totally evaluating them. So I think from a standpoint of why this is happening, we're not quite sure. Overall, is it that the younger age group is more sedentary? Is there are higher incidence of obesity eyes there difference in diets Now we're not quite sure, but it's definitely a real thing. It's been happening over the last several years on It's a statistical thing that we need to concern ourselves about. I think the biggest thing from my standpoint as a surgeon is to make sure that we diagnose it as soon as possible on that means a good evaluation for someone that's having symptoms. Unfortunately, many times people don't have symptoms and they might not come toe evaluation until those symptoms get a lot worse. But when people do have symptoms, especially any type of abnormal bleeding, any rectal bleeding or any change in their bowel function changing the caliber of their stool, those things are very important to really look into on bake sure that we evaluate them well, examine them well and then refer them a soon as there's an issue that could be happening. Um, referral is to Ajai, physician or certainly even Thio colorectal surgeon. If there is something that's palpable on physical exam or something that's abnormal, it's better to see those patients as soon as possible again. That makes the treatment of it a lot easier. I think that once we dio identify someone that has a rectal cancer in any age group, but especially in the younger age group, earlier we confined that the better, and that does make it easier to treat. Sometimes there's a lot of options for treatment of rectal cancer. Now all of those options air trying to make sure that we can preserve the sphincter function and so that people do not have to have any type of a permanent colostomy, and we have many ways to do that now. Robotic surgery is very helpful so that we can actually respect down even farther and down, closer to the to the sphincters weaken, do a transitional surgery now, using ah platform that uses almost like laparoscopic instruments and removing a rectal tumor through the anus and not not having to have a large abdominal operation. Onda. There's also a combination of a team effort with oncology, radiation, oncology, a swell a surgery. And so I think the biggest thing for people to remember for providers is to be aware of the fact that there is a higher incidents now of younger people getting colorectal cancer. And if someone is having symptoms, do not assume that it's a benign process such as hemorrhoids or something like that. But be aware that it is. It certainly could be a malignancy, even in the setting of someone who's 30 years old or so. So I think that's the most important thing.
