Oncologist Dr. Raed Al-Rajabi has shared the harrowing reality of working in a clinic where a shocking 70 percent of young patients are battling incurable colon cancer, with some as young as 14 years old. Dr. Al-Rajabi, who has been treating cancer patients for 14 years, expressed his initial expectations of the job being ‘horrible,’ but he never anticipated the heartbreaking trend of treating terminally ill 20-year-olds.
The alarming increase in the number of patients under 55 diagnosed with colorectal cancer has nearly doubled since Dr. Al-Rajabi began his career. Shockingly, around 70 percent of these young individuals have reached a critical stage of the disease due to delayed diagnosis, leaving little room for effective treatment options.
As an associate professor of medical oncology at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Dr. Al-Rajabi leads the colorectal cancer treatment efforts. He described the cases he encounters at the hospital as ‘heartbreaking,’ shedding light on the devastating impact of the disease on young lives.
Colorectal cancer, a disease that affects over 150,000 Americans annually, claims the lives of approximately 50,000 individuals each year, as reported by the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. While the average age of diagnosis is 66 years, there has been a concerning shift towards younger patients.
In 2019, about 20 percent of colorectal cancer diagnoses were in individuals under 55, a significant increase from 1995 when only 11 percent fell into this age group, according to the American Cancer Society. Early detection plays a crucial role in improving survival rates, with approximately 90 percent of individuals surviving five years post-diagnosis when the cancer is caught early.
However, for those diagnosed at later stages when the cancer has spread, the survival rates plummet to only 13 to 18 percent. This underscores the importance of raising awareness about colorectal cancer symptoms, especially among young people, to facilitate early detection and potentially life-saving interventions.
