The pain was so sharp that Chris Williams took himself to the hospital.
It was 2021. September Tuesday evening, when Williams began to feel abscess in abdominal pain and nausea. The next morning it worsened.
“I had to go to ER,” said Williams, who lives in Brooklyn.
At the hospital, he was diagnosed with appendicitis and surgically removed his appendix. About a week later, he met his medical team to remove quotes and discuss other actions – and then he received the shocking news.
“They found a tumor sitting on my attachment and they biodegradable the tumor and found it was cancer,” said Williams, who was 48 at the time.
“It really was a blessing,” he said. “In my eyes, it was actually just a goddess and a blessing that I could detect a tumor – that the tumor caused my accessory to almost rupture, that they would find it – because they later learned that it was stage III.
Williams, who is now lacking in cancer, completed treatment in 2022. In November, it is one of the growing group of patients with cancer diagnosed at a young age.
“A worrying and alarming”
An attachment playing a role in supporting the immune system is a small bag -like organ attached to the lower right side of the colon.
Although the appendix is rare – usually, it is estimated that every year it will affect about 1 or 2 people in the United States – the diagnosis of a new study increases significantly between generation X and millennia.
Compared to people born since 1941. Until 1949, according to research published since 1981. Until 1989 Until 1989, born people born since 1976. By 1949, the morbidity increased by more than three times among people who were more than four times. This frequency was found to increase since 1975. Until 2019
“In general, it is worrying,” said dr. Andreana Holowatttyy, the main author of the study and associate professor of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Medicine at the University of Vanderbilt, and Vanderbilt-Angram at the Cancer Center.
“We see some of the consequences of these generations associated with colon, rectum, stomach cancer, so this is one of the reasons for us to investigate it in the cancer of rare additives.
Researchers of the new study – at the University of Vanderbilt, Medical Center, Western Virginia University and Texas University Health Sciences – analyzed data on 4,858 USA, 20 years and older, who were diagnosed with accessories for cancer 1975-2019.
The data were divided into five -year -old groups and showed that the incidence of accessories for cancer according to birth cohort, especially among people born after 1945, wrote in the study.
Although the new study did not specifically address why this prevalence is growing, researchers say that “unlikely” is explained by the progress of disease or diagnostic measures.
“There are no standardized techniques for appendo -cancer.
On the contrary, the tendency can be associated with “environmental influences, which can increase the risk of generations that are now in the middle,” the researchers wrote. And similar trends “also reported the colon, rectum and stomach cancer, which claims that potential risk factors can contribute to the entire gastrointestinal cancer.
For example, obesity has been identified as a risk factor for diagnosis of accessories and is recognized as a risk factor for colon cancer, Holowatttyy said, adding that finding what risk factors can lead to these cancer frequency tendencies can help reveal ways to prevent disease.
“The fact that we see these trends in parallel among other cases of gastrointestinal cancer is told or believed that there may be both common and different risk factors that can contribute to cancer development during younger generations of the gastrointestinal tract,” Holowatyj said.
“It will be important to understand that these common factors are, or what these risk factors are different, both for these types of gastrointestinal cancer and absolute risk – to help us support the development of effective prevention strategies and eventually seek to reduce this burden or eliminate these trends,” she said.
There are no specific anti -cancer selection recommendations, but symptoms of the disease usually include abdominal or pelvic pain, bloating, nausea and vomiting – this can often imitate the symptoms of appendicitis. Appendix cancer can be treated with surgery to remove the appendix. If cancer spreads, patients are often given chemotherapy.
“This is a disease where, if not caught before a rupture to the attachment, tumor cells often dissipate throughout the abdominal cavity,” Holowatttyy said. “This is why up to 1 2 patients are diagnosed with metastatic disease” or cancer that has spread.
Rising cancer for young adults
The study showed that the increased increase in the incidence of annexes among younger adults is not surprised by dr. Andrea Cercek, director of the early initial colorectal and GI Cancer Center, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which healed Williams.
“We knew that early appendix cancer was part of the history of early Cancer, including colon and rectal cancer,” said Cercek, who did not participate in new studies.
At first glance, she noticed the trend of her patients – but it is still unclear what specific factors can lead to this increase.
“There are many suspects, including lifestyle changes, nutritional changes. People talk about obesity, less activity. But there is nothing to do for everyone. And then there are changes in the environment,” Cercek said. “I think it is probably a combination of a particular type, something multifacter, but we haven’t found it yet. Fortunately, there is a lot of work, a lot of research.”
Despite the growing prevalence, Cercek emphasized that the cancer of additives remains uncommon.
“It is very rare, even though it rises,” she said. “However, this is an important part of this all -encompassing history of young adult cancer.”
“I have to be grateful for what to be for”
According to him, Williams’ journey after the cancer diagnosis was not easy, but he remains grateful for his care team. After he was diagnosed, he was looking for treatment at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where he underwent an additional surgery and received chemotherapy.
Chris Williams underwent surgery at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. – courtesy of Chris Williams
“I was able to look at it in a few different ways. I could make it. I could complain. I could say, ‘Woe I am. Or I could be grateful that it was found and that the treatment was a solution,” said Williams. “It could have been someone who killed me, and since I didn’t, I feel that I have everything I am grateful for.”
Williams thought he was doing everything right before diagnosing cancer. He ate mainly a healthy diet and exercise regularly, but he also had a lot of stress as he was New York’s state project manager.
At the age of 42, he suffered his first heart attack, he said. A few weeks after the diagnosis of cancer, he is a second heart attack. Then the third took place shortly after the operation at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, he said. And only last year Williams suffered a fourth heart attack. His heart found clogging, and he said he was treated with stenting, where the arterial tube was placed in the arterial to increase the cardiac blood flow.
“A lot of what I have experienced for stress,” said Williams.
“My personality was where I have a lot of internalization. Especially among men we tend to internalize a lot because we feel we have to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders,” he said. “But doing this when you internalize, you are sick. That internalization causes stress, which can cause heart disease that can cause strokes that can cause cancer.”
Inspired by his own health challenges, Williams has begun in Brooklyn -based HEART & SOUL to combine color communities, especially black men in poorly served communities, physical and mental health measures, as well as increased communication with healthcare providers to help improve their overall health.
“We also teach them how to defend ourselves, as much of the challenges they face, especially when it comes to colored men, is concerned not to see or hear when they go to the hospital,” Williams said, adding that it emphasizes that it is important to listen to your body and have a primary care doctor.
“Especially at a age when we see how men and women are diagnosed at an earlier age, with various diseases, I really think it is important for us to start a priority to combine a care team,” he said. “We have to follow a holistic approach to how we treat ourselves and how we take care of ourselves.”
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