A pair of New Jersey sisters are battling ‘nightmare’ stage 4 colon cancer together after they were both diagnosed with the disease in their thirties.
In February 2021, Eloisa Oquendo sought medical help for severe pain in her lower abdomen. When doctors rushed the 37-year-old into emergency surgery, they discovered a ticking time bomb.
“That’s when they discovered cancer,” he said. “The doctor came in, I was alone, and he told me I had stage four colon cancer.”
After being declared cancer-free, Oquendo’s illness returned with a vengeance earlier this year. But this time, she won’t go through treatment alone.
In March 2024, her sister Joyce Melo was also diagnosed with stage four colon cancer after undergoing routine surgery to remove her appendix.
Ms Oquendo said: “What are the chances of two sisters being diagnosed consecutively with the same diagnosis? This is almost unheard of.”
Eloisa Oquendo (right) and Joyce Melo (left), sisters from New Jersey, were diagnosed with stage four colon cancer at age 37.
The graph above shows the increase in colorectal cancer in Americans under age 50 over the past two decades.
Ms. Melo was 37 years old when she was diagnosed, the same age as her sister three years earlier.
Melo told the local news station. crown 4: ‘Sometimes I still can’t believe that this is our life, honestly. “It’s like you’re living a nightmare.”
In February 2021, Ms. Oquendo went to the hospital with extreme lower abdominal pain and was rushed into surgery, which is when doctors discovered her stage 4 colon cancer.
Stage four colon cancer kills nearly nine in 10 patients within five years.
Oquendo underwent three more surgeries and 24 rounds of chemotherapy. They told him he was in remission.
However, earlier this year, his cancer returned and he will undergo more rounds of chemotherapy.
About three years later, in March 2024, Ms. Melo visited the hospital herself when she experienced pain in her lower abdomen.
Tests revealed he had an inflamed appendix and would need the organ removed.
Like her sister, doctors found cancer in Ms. Melo’s body and she, too, was diagnosed with colon cancer. At that time it was thought to be stage 1.
However, doctors soon discovered that the cancer had spread to his lungs and his condition had advanced to stage 4.
Melo wrote on Facebook that she was immediately rushed into an eight-hour surgery, where doctors had to remove a portion of her right lung to remove the tumor.
He now plans to undergo 12 rounds of chemotherapy, followed by a procedure to remove 80 percent of his colon to prevent the cancer from returning.
Three years after her sister’s diagnosis, Joyce Melo (center left) received the same diagnosis: stage 4 colon cancer.
The above shows the symptoms and their frequency in patients with early-onset colon cancer, those who develop colon cancer before age 50, and late-onset patients, those who develop cancer after age 50.
The sisters’ story comes at a time when colon cancer is on the rise among young Americans, with 50,000 expected to die from the disease this year.
Rates in people under 50 have increased about two percent annually since the early 2000s, and cases are projected to double between 2010 and 2030.
Several factors are suspected of causing the increase in the disease among young people: a diet based on highly processed foods and energy drinks and obesity.
However, experts have noted an increase in the disease in physically fit and otherwise healthy Americans.
Now, an emerging area of science suggests that the gut and the body’s microbiome (a collection of beneficial bacteria in the body) may play a role. And more recently, scientists postulated that high blood sugar could be a contributing factor.
As both sisters endure treatment and recovery, Ms Melo said: ‘Recovery has been incredibly challenging and I’m still not sure where I found the strength to endure all of this.
“But you never really know how strong you are until you face the biggest battle of your life.”
It’s unclear what exactly could have caused both sisters to receive the same diagnosis at the same age, but research has begun to scratch the surface.
According to the Mayo Clinic, having a family history of colon cancer increases your risk of developing it by five to 15 percent.
Mayo Clinic experts wrote: “If your family member with cancer is younger than 50, your risk is even higher.”
and a study 2019 published in BMJ found that siblings of colon cancer patients were 70 percent more likely to develop the disease compared to those without a family history.
Additionally, according to the American Cancer Society, the same cancer in two siblings can be due to a genetic mutation inherited from their parents.
The ACS also noted that having several close relatives with colon cancer at a young age could be a sign of familial cancer syndrome, which is also caused by inherited genetic factors.
As Melo battles the disease, he also faces financial battles as his insurance denies coverage for his chemotherapy treatments.
His sister, Mrs. Oquendo, told KRON 4: ‘It makes me angry. How come insurance doesn’t cover chemotherapy? How is that not an option?
The family has established a GoFundMe for Ms. Melo with a goal of $20,000. Approximately $9,400 has been raised so far.