Our terminal colon cancers have been dismissed as “anxiety” and “allergies”

Young women whose symptoms were attributed to allergies and anxiety have been diagnosed with terminal colon cancer after months of pleading with doctors.

Raquel Aguilar, 33, of California, suffered from severe diarrhea for three years, with blood in her stool. Yet doctors referred her to a psychologist instead of ordering further tests.

It took three years before she went to hospital with severe abdominal pain, only to be diagnosed with inoperable stage 4 colon cancer, which is effectively a death sentence.

Some women are considered “anxious” because they have virtually no symptoms. Amy Lentz of Washington state noticed her stools were slightly looser than normal. She had to wait a year and a half to have a colonoscopy, which confirmed terminal colon cancer.

As colon cancer cases rise among young Americans, DailyMail.com has heard from dozens of patients with a similar story: Doctors overlooked their symptoms because they were “too young,” including women who have been called “melodramatic.”

Today, their disease is so advanced that it is too late to cure it.

Oncologists told DailyMail.com that a combination of vague symptoms and a lack of screening in younger patients could explain why more young people, particularly women, are being missed and ending up with cancer that is too aggressive to treat.

Dr. Daniel Landau, an oncologist, hematologist and associate at the Mesothelioma Center at Asbestos.com, told DailyMail.com: “Unfortunately, colon cancer often develops without many signs or symptoms. If there are symptoms, they are usually vague.”

In addition to telltale signs like blood in the stool, these vague symptoms may include eating less than usual, feeling full easily, and excessive burping.

“These symptoms can usually be accompanied by irritable bowel syndrome, food intolerance or gas pains,” Dr. Landau said.

“Because these problems are much more common than colon cancer in younger people, many doctors simply don’t consider them a sign of colon cancer.”

“However, not thinking about it is the same as not diagnosing it.”

Dr Misagh Karimi, a medical oncologist at City of Hope Cancer Center in California, told DailyMail.com: ‘Cancers are often detected later in young adults than in other age groups.

“This can sometimes complicate treatment if the cancer has grown or spread by the time it is found.”

Figures from the National Cancer Institute show that one in four colon cancers are diagnosed at stages 3 and 4. However, recent research suggests that younger patients are 60% more likely to be diagnosed with advanced colorectal cancer than older patients.

And the disease can become inoperable when it begins to spread to vital organs such as the lungs and brain.

The NCI estimates that only 16% of patients with stage four colon cancer survive five years.

In 2019, Ms. Aguilar’s roommate noticed that she was going to the bathroom more often than usual.

“I was working in a restaurant and I realized I was eating too much food at work or eating too many processed foods,” she told The Patient Story.

Soon after, she added more protein to her diet and began taking fiber supplements to help with her digestive issues.

Ms. Aguilar remained asymptomatic for three years, although the digestive problems returned in 2022. Raquel no longer worked in a restaurant, but her co-workers asked her why she was taking so many bathroom breaks.

But it was only when she began to feel full quickly after eating and noticed blood in her stool that she became concerned.

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But her primary care doctor ordered her to see a psychiatrist instead of getting follow-up tests. “She thought I was just suffering from anxiety,” Aguilar said. “I’m sure she’s not the only one who’s done that.”

Three weeks later, she rushed to the emergency room with severe abdominal and lower back pain. An MRI and CT scan revealed stage 4 colon cancer, which had spread to her ovaries, liver, lungs and abdominal wall.

“I know it was a classic colorectal cancer, but because I’m so young, I’m a woman, I’m a minority, statistically speaking, having just one of those categories is going to make you more likely to be rejected,” she said.

“Right now they’re telling me they don’t even want to do surgery, just because my cancer is so advanced. They’re saying it might not be worth it,” she said.

Instead, his doctors prescribed chemotherapy, which they believe he will need to take for the rest of his life. And even then, they believe the chemotherapy will eventually stop working because of how aggressive his cancer is.

In late 2019, Lentz noticed a “very small change” in her stools.

“I slacked off a bit. For most people, it’s not that bad, but I hadn’t changed my diet,” Lentz told The Patient Story.

She had just returned from a holiday in Spain and initially attributed her digestive problems to the trip. But after a few weeks, the symptoms did not go away.

At first, doctors weren’t concerned, thinking the change in bowel behavior was due to a food sensitivity, and they tested for allergies and celiac disease. “It wasn’t considered urgent. No one considered cancer,” she said.

Ms. Lentz was not able to have her colonoscopy until February 2021, when doctors immediately shouted, “Get her husband here now!”

“I felt my heart sink into my stomach,” she said.

Doctors discovered a six-centimeter mass in her colon, about the size of an egg. Ms. Lentz was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, which had spread to 11 of her lymph nodes.

Although six months of chemotherapy shrank the tumors, her cancer returned last summer. Lentz is now participating in a clinical trial of immunotherapy, which she calls “night and day” compared to chemotherapy.

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“The trial has been great. Things aren’t getting better, but it’s not the chemotherapy. I feel like I’ve got my life back with this immunotherapy,” she said. “I’m not sick and tired all the time. I feel like I can live a little bit more of a normal life. It’s really fantastic.”

However, Ms. Lentz’s cancer continues to grow and her options are dwindling. It is not yet known what her treatment plan will look like after the trial.

She now advocates earlier screening and seeking help as soon as patients notice something is wrong.

“Many people sit and suffer in silence, and by the time the disease begins to manifest its unsightly symptoms, it is often already at an advanced stage,” she said.

“As we see a shift toward more younger people developing cancers, we may need to move toward more aggressive evaluations of vague symptomatology,” Dr. Landau said.

He acknowledged, however, that setting up a colonoscopy can take time, as it involves consultations and preparation time.

“This puts pressure on both patients and doctors and can lead people to believe that symptoms are the result of something simpler, like irritable bowel syndrome,” he said.

Dr. Landau noted that new screening methods, such as stool tests and at-home blood tests, could help detect these cancers earlier, although more research is still needed.

“Given that trends show that the younger patient population is developing cancer and that easier tests are on the horizon, there is hope that this trend of missed cancers will improve,” he said.