Unexpected Battle: Facing Colorectal Cancer at a Young Age

Abi­gail L. was step­ping into a new chap­ter of her life, leav­ing her home in Arkansas to attend Quin­cy Uni­ver­si­ty in Quin­cy, Illi­nois. Eager to embrace new expe­ri­ences, she was excit­ed about the oppor­tu­ni­ties that lay ahead.

But life had oth­er plans.

At first, her symp­toms seemed minor — feel­ing cold all the time, los­ing weight with­out try­ing, and an unusu­al fatigue she couldn’t shake. She brushed them off, assum­ing they were just part of adjust­ing to a big move, new respon­si­bil­i­ties, and the typ­i­cal ups and downs of young adulthood.

Then, some­thing hap­pened that she couldn’t ignore.

It wasn’t until some­one point­ed it out that she real­ized she had been falling asleep unex­pect­ed­ly at work. What seemed like sim­ple exhaus­tion was some­thing far more seri­ous. She wasn’t just tired; she was los­ing consciousness.

Encour­aged by her super­vi­sor, Abi­gail decid­ed to get checked out at QMG Now Urgent Care. That vis­it would mark the first step on a jour­ney she nev­er expect­ed to take.

She was referred to Quin­cy Med­ical Group’s Gas­troen­terol­o­gy depart­ment, where she met Nurse Prac­ti­tion­er Don­na Shields. As she described her symp­toms, Shields lis­tened close­ly and con­sult­ed with QMG Gas­troen­terol­o­gist Dr. Kar­tikeya Tri­pathi. Togeth­er, they rec­om­mend­ed a colonoscopy to uncov­er the cause of Abigail’s trou­bling health issues.

With her mom back home in Arkansas, Abi­gail arrived at the QMG Surgery Cen­ter with a friend by her side, hop­ing for answers but nev­er expect­ing the worst — after all, she was only 20 years old.

“When I woke up from my colonoscopy, Dr. Tri­pathi came into the room with a ter­ri­ble look on his face,” Abi­gail recalled. ​“He looked at my friend and said, ​‘We need to call her moth­er.’ He knew I would need her, even all the way in Arkansas.”

The words that fol­lowed changed every­thing: col­orec­tal cancer.

Hear­ing those words was over­whelm­ing, and the real­i­ty of the diag­no­sis was dif­fi­cult to process. ​“It was a com­plete shock. You nev­er think some­thing like this can hap­pen when you’re 20,” Abi­gail said.

Abigail’s diag­no­sis rep­re­sents a ris­ing num­ber of younger patients. Col­orec­tal can­cer is increas­ing­ly affect­ing younger adults, with sig­nif­i­cant changes observed over recent decades. In the Unit­ed States, approx­i­mate­ly 10% of colon can­cer cas­es are diag­nosed in indi­vid­u­als under 50, and this fig­ure has been ris­ing by about 1% to 2% annu­al­ly, accord­ing to the Col­orec­tal Can­cer Alliance.

Dr. Tri­pathi shared, ​“Abi­gail is one of the youngest patients I’ve diag­nosed with colon can­cer. Being diag­nosed at 20 is extreme­ly rare, but we are see­ing an uptick in colon can­cer diag­noses among younger populations.”

The diag­no­sis was espe­cial­ly sur­pris­ing for Abi­gail, since she had no fam­i­ly his­to­ry of the dis­ease. How­ev­er, Dr. Tri­pathi explained that this is not unusu­al in younger patients.

“When we talk about younger colon can­cer patients, genet­ics often come to mind. But it’s impor­tant to note that only about 20% of colon can­cer cas­es have a genet­ic com­po­nent. The rest are con­sid­ered spo­radic, mean­ing they don’t have a known genet­ic cause,” explained Dr. Tripathi.

After receiv­ing treat­ment at the QMG Can­cer Insti­tute, Abi­gail is now in remission. 

As she reflects on the warn­ing signs she might have missed and real­izes how much her body had been try­ing to tell her. ​“When I look at pic­tures of myself before the diag­no­sis, I can see it now — I looked so sick, but at the time, I didn’t real­ize it. It’s almost shock­ing to see how much my body was strug­gling,” she said.

She encour­ages oth­ers to pay clos­er atten­tion to their health. ​“You’re the only one who knows what you’re expe­ri­enc­ing. If some­thing feels off, don’t ignore it,” she said. ​“I almost con­vinced myself that my symp­toms weren’t a big deal. But they were.”

Dr. Tri­pathi empha­sized the impor­tance of pay­ing atten­tion to symp­toms: ​“My advice to patients, espe­cial­ly younger ones, is to be aware of any changes in your bow­el move­ments. Also, keep in mind that colon can­cer can be asymp­to­matic, so if your body is giv­ing you signs, you should lis­ten and talk to your doctor.”

Abi­gail wants to empow­er oth­ers to speak open­ly about their symp­toms with their health­care provider.

“I know some things can be uncom­fort­able to dis­cuss, but being open about them could save your life. Don’t let embar­rass­ment pre­vent you from seek­ing help,” she said.

For more infor­ma­tion on the ris­ing cas­es of col­orec­tal can­cer in younger adults, learn more from Dr. Tri­pathi in the arti­cle: ​“Col­orec­tal Can­cer Aware­ness: A Grow­ing Con­cern for Younger Adults.”