OHIO — It’s the deadliest form of cancer among young men, the second deadliest among young women and the rate that people are being diagnosed before they reach age 50 keeps climbing, according to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance.
A Cleveland Clinic study suggests modern diets may be to blame.
At age 35, John Johnson said he was in the best shape of his life when he noticed something wasn’t right.
“I was training for a marathon at the time and I started finding blood in my stools,” he said.
After completing the race, his doctors performed a colonoscopy and found cancer.
“The first thing that came to my mind was my wife and how am I going to tell her?” he said. “How is she going to feel?”
He started weeks of radiation and months of chemotherapy to treat the disease. The father of two said he had no family history of cancer.
“I can’t help but think… ‘how did I get it?’” he said.
Cleveland Clinic Gastrointestinal Medical Oncologist Dr. Suneel Kamath is hoping to find those answers. He helped author a study researching the rising rates of people in their 20s and 30s developing colorectal cancer.
“We got to figure out what’s causing this,” he said. “We have to stop it. You know, I don’t want to see these people in my clinic anymore. They should be out living their lives, you know, working their careers, raising their kids or whatnot. They shouldn’t be getting chemo with me.”
The study looked at blood and tissue samples from patients diagnosed at a younger age and compared it with those diagnosed later in life. Kamath says research confirmed earlier studies that showed red meat, processed foods and some artificial sweeteners are linked to increased risk.
“What we’re starting to see is it doesn’t need to be four and five decades of having a diet that has excessive red meat and processed foods and things like that,” he said. “Even probably just 10, 15 or 20 years is enough.”
That information adds up for Johnson.
Even though he ate a vegetarian diet when he was diagnosed, he said growing up he lived on fast food and quick processed meals.
“I was doing all those things, but when you’re a child, you don’t get to make those food choices,” Johnson said.
He wrapped up his cancer treatments in January and is now back to running.
“My plan is to run the Boston Marathon and actually raise awareness for colorectal cancer,” he said.
He’s sharing his story to encourage others to listen to their bodies and get a cancer screening if needed.
“You never know,” Johnson said. “Like, no one is exempt.”
Kamath said younger patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer experienced persistent symptoms of blood in stool or chronic constipation, despite treatment.
He said he hopes to expand the Cleveland Clinic’s colorectal cancer research using a larger population of participants in hopes of eventually leading to the less-invasive metabolite blood analysis technique be accepted and used as a tool for early detection.