Young women whose symptoms were dismissed as allergies and anxiety have been diagnosed with terminal colon cancer, after months of pleading with doctors.
Raquel Aguilar, 33, of California, suffered from severe, intermittent diarrhea that included blood in her stool for three years. Yet doctors referred her to a psychologist instead of ordering additional tests.
He had to travel three years later to suffer severe abdominal pain and be diagnosed with inoperable stage four colon cancer, which is effectively a death sentence.
And some women are considered “anxious” for having virtually no symptoms. Amy Lentz, from Washington state, noticed that her stools were slightly softer 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: their symptoms were overlooked by doctors because they were “too young”, including women they described as “melodramatic”.
Now, her disease is so advanced that it is too late to cure her.
Raquel Aguilar, 33, of California, suffered from diarrhea from time to time before she was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer.
And oncologists told DailyMail.com that a combination of vague symptoms and a lack of screening for young patients could be why more young people, especially women, are being ruled out and left with cancer too aggressive to treat.
Dr. Daniel Landau, oncologist, hematologist and collaborator of the Mesothelioma Center in Asbestos.comHe told DailyMail.com: “Unfortunately, bowel cancer often develops without many signs or symptoms. If there are symptoms, they are traditionally 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 belching.
These symptoms are often accompanied by irritable bowel syndrome, food intolerance or gas pains,’ said Dr. Landau.
‘Because these problems are much more common than colon cancer at an early age, many doctors simply don’t think of them as a sign of colon cancer.’
“However, not thinking about it means not being able to diagnose it.”
Dr Misagh Karimi, a medical oncologist at City of Hope Cancer Centre in California, told DailyMail.com: ‘Cancers are often detected later in young adults than in other age groups.
‘Sometimes this can complicate treatment if the cancer has already grown or spread by the time it is detected.’
National Cancer Institute figures show that one in four cases of colon cancer are diagnosed at stages three and four. However, recent research suggests that younger patients are 60 percent more likely to be diagnosed with advanced-stage colorectal cancer than older patients.
And the disease can become inoperable when it begins to spread to vital organs like the lungs and brain.
The NCI estimates that only 16 percent of patients with stage four colon cancer survive after five years.
Ms Aguilar’s cancer had spread to her ovaries, liver, lungs and abdominal lining. Her doctors have deemed it inoperable.
Ms. Aguilar’s doctors believe she will need to continue chemotherapy for the rest of her life and that it will eventually stop being effective.
In 2019, Ms. Aguilar’s roommate noticed that she was going to the bathroom more frequently than usual.
“I was working in a restaurant and I thought I was eating too much work food or eating too many processed foods,” she said. The patient’s story.
Shortly after, she added more protein to her diet and began taking fiber supplements to ease her digestive discomfort.
Ms. Aguilar remained symptom-free for three years, although digestive problems returned in 2022. Raquel no longer worked at a restaurant, but her coworkers asked her why she was going to the bathroom so much.
But it wasn’t until she started feeling full quickly after eating and noticed blood in her stool that she became concerned.
However, her primary care physician scheduled a psychiatric appointment instead of follow-up testing. “She thought I just had anxiety,” Aguilar said. “I’m sure she’s not the only doctor who has done that.”
Three weeks later, she rushed to the emergency room with severe abdominal and lower back pain. MRIs and CT scans revealed stage four colon cancer, which had spread to her ovaries, liver, lungs and abdominal lining.
“I know it was classic colorectal cancer, but because I’m so young, I’m a woman and I’m in a minority, statistically speaking, having only one of those categories makes it more likely that you’ll be ruled out,” she said.
“Right now they’re telling me they don’t even want to operate on me because my cancer is so advanced. They’re saying it might not be worth it,” she said.
Instead, her doctors put her on a chemotherapy regimen, which they suspect she will have to continue for life. And even then, they believe the chemotherapy will eventually stop working because of how aggressive her cancer is.
In late 2019, Ms. Lentz noticed a “very small change” in her bowel movements.
Amy Lentz was 39 when she was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. Initially, food allergies were ruled out, and she waited a year and a half to have a colonoscopy.
Ms. Lentz is participating in an immunotherapy trial, but it is unclear what her treatment will be like afterwards.
“It loosened up a little bit. For most people, it’s not a big deal, but I hadn’t changed my diet,” Ms. Lentz told The Patient Story.
She had just returned from a holiday in Spain, so she initially attributed her digestive problems to the trip, but after a few weeks, the symptoms did not subside.
Doctors were initially unconcerned, assuming the intestinal change was due to a food sensitivity and testing her for allergies or celiac disease. “It wasn’t considered an emergency. No one thought it was cancer,” she said.
Ms. Lentz wouldn’t get a colonoscopy until February 2021, when doctors immediately yelled, “Get your husband in here right now!”
“I felt my heart sink into my stomach,” she said.
Doctors found a six-centimetre mass in her colon, about the size of an egg. Ms Lentz was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer, which had spread to 11 of her lymph nodes.
Although six months of chemotherapy shrank the tumors, the cancer returned last summer. Lentz is now enrolled in a clinical trial of immunotherapy, which she says is “night and day” compared to chemotherapy.
“The trial has been amazing. Things aren’t getting better, but it’s not 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 have a little bit more of a normal life. It’s been really fantastic.”
However, Lentz’s cancer continues to progress and her options are becoming increasingly limited. It is unclear what her treatment plan will look like after the trial.
He now advocates for earlier screening and seeking help as soon as patients notice something is wrong.
“Many people just sit and suffer in silence, and by the time the disease starts to show its most unpleasant symptoms, it is often already in advanced stages,” he said.
“As we’re seeing a shift toward younger people developing cancer, the mantra may have to change toward more aggressive screening for vague symptomatology,” Dr. Landau said.
However, she acknowledged that scheduling a colonoscopy can be time-consuming, as it involves appointments and preparation time.
“This creates stress for both patients and physicians and can make one more likely to believe that symptoms are the result of something simpler, such as irritable bowel syndrome,” she said.
Dr. Landau noted that newer screening methods, such as stool tests and home blood tests, may help detect these cancers earlier, although more research is still needed.
“With trends showing a younger patient population developing cancer and seeing easier testing on the horizon, we hope this trend of undetected cancers will improve,” he said.