When beloved actor Chadwick Boseman died at the age of 43 on Friday from colon cancer, his millions of global fans were unaware he’d been battling the disease since 2016.
"Chadwick was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2016 and battled with it these last four years as it progressed to stage IV," the family said in a statement.
— Chadwick Boseman (@chadwickboseman) August 29, 2020
On Monday, actress Natalie Desselle-Reid also died from disease.
Although the news of both of the beloved stars' deaths came as an unwelcome surprise to most, research shows that colon cancer has become an increasing concern among younger people. According to the American Cancer Society, people under the age of 50 have seen a 51% increase in colorectal cancer since 1994.
“More than 16,000 people younger than 50 are currently diagnosed with colorectal cancer each year. There are 45 new cases each day and 3,600 — 10 per day — die from the disease,” said Rebecca L. Siegel, the American Cancer Society’s scientific director of surveillance research.
The American Cancer Society released updated screening guidelines in 2018, stating that adults should first be tested at age 45. The American College of Gastroenterology had previously recommended the same standard for Black Americans, saying they should be screened at age 45 because they have a higher chance of getting colorectal cancer than their white counterparts.
Adults born around 1990 have twice the risk of colon cancer and four times the risk of rectal cancer, compared with those born around 1950, a 2017 study by the ACS concluded. Looking at several countries, researchers said colon cancer in adults under the age of 50 increased significantly in Denmark, New Zealand, Australia and the U.K.
“Money needs to be put into this research because there are undoubtedly genes we have not found. The answers are out there. We just don’t know them yet,” said Felice H. Schnoll-Sussman, director of the Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City.
According to Brian Clark, Gastroenterology expert in Stoneham, Mass., the rate of colon cancer found in adults between the ages of 20 and 29 years old increased by 2.4% per year from the mid-1980s through 2013.
Clark said the factors leading to a higher risk of colon cancer include heavy alcohol use, unhealthy diet, family history, obesity and tobacco.
"Maintaining a healthy lifestyle will reduce your risk for colon cancer," Clark wrote. "That includes avoiding tobacco, keeping a healthy weight, being physically active, and eating a high fiber diet while avoiding too many red or processed meats."
Fola May, assistant professor of medicine at UCLA and a researcher at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said Black people "are more likely to get colon cancer" and "more likely to have an advanced stage of disease when they’re diagnosed with colon cancer."
"They’re more likely to die from colon cancer and they have shorter survival after diagnosis with colon cancer,” May added.
The researcher said part of the problem is the stigma of getting a colonoscopy, particularly among Black men.
“Men in our focus group study and men in other studies have said, ‘I do not want any sort of procedure where I have to have any sort of instrument that’s placed into my behind,’" May said. "And that was a persistent theme throughout our focus group studies and we’ve seen it in the literature and in other people’s work as well.”
Although Black women haven't shown the same repulse for testing, May said are they still at a high risk of developing colon cancer because of an unhealthy diet.
“So diets that are very high in fat, particularly animal fat, and very low in fiber, are associated with later in life developing colon cancer,” the UCLA researcher said.
Other factors tied to colon cancer include a lack of physical activity, and lower intake of vitamins C and E.
Dr. Brennan Spiegel, director of health services research for Cedars Sinai, said some people believe they're going to die from cancer anyway and they feel better off not knowing about it.
“This idea of cancer fatalism, we found is more common in African-Americans than in other racial and ethnic groups,” Spiegel said.
Access to health care is another factor identified by researchers. In Los Angeles County, for example, Black people make up 9% of the population, but account for 26% of the uninsured residents, studies showed.
Clark said Colonoscopy is the most effective way to detect and prevent colon cancer. The procedures aims to detect abnormal tissue growths known as polyps and remove them before they can turn into cancer. Studies show that colonoscopy can lower the risk of dying from colon cancer by up to 70%. According to the American Cancer Society, more than 53,000 colon cancer related-deaths are expected to take place throughout 2020. Among deaths due to cancer, colon cancer ranks second in the nation.
