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Overall, the colorectal cancer story is encouraging

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Re: Overall, the colorectal cancer story is encouraging

#101

Post by recallingmemory »

epistasis wrote: post #95
recallingmemory wrote: post #86

It doesn't look like meat consumption was mentioned anywhere. Frequent consumption of red and processed meat is strongly linked to a higher risk of colorectal cancer, with studies showing a 30% to 40% increased risk for high consumption levels [1]. Processed meat, in particular, raises CRC risk by about 18% for every 50-gram daily portion [2]. Your ultra-endurance athletes might be convinced they need more protein in…

Why would meat cause a decrease in incidence for older folks but a higher incidence for younger folks? Additionally, the risks you quantify for general cancer incidence are at the bottom odds ratios listed at the end for early-onset. Speculating that ultra-endurance athletes eat tons of meat, without any evidence, seems quite misplaced.

2025 study on the diet quality of ultra-marathon runners: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11820624/

From the discussion section, "It is important to note that inadequate intake in the athletes of the present study may carry significant negative health implications. Insufficient consumption of fruits and wholegrains has been linked to the development of chronic diseases, including CVD, cancer, T2D, and hypertension. Additionally, high intake of sodium, saturated fat and discretionary food items are correlated with higher incidence of obesity, T2D, CVD, dementia, and cancer. Paradoxically, despite exceeding the WHO guidelines for physical activity by a substantial margin, these athletes are not meeting dietary recommendations essential for long-term health, highlighting the potential risks posed by these inadequacies."

Re: Overall, the colorectal cancer story is encouraging

#102

Post by PenguinCoder »

greedo wrote: post #80
PenguinCoder wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, I wasn't aware of that connection either. I was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer, but was identified as 'genetic' and not caused by diet or lifestyle. I used to be a heavy runner too, done a few marathons, and plenty more 10k, 8ks etc. Wonder if that could be a correlation... Treatments have it contained/in maintenance so at least I have that going for me.

I too was diagnosed with stage 2 rectal cancer, but it was back in 2005. How did they determine your cause was genetic?

Did the genetic genome tests from the biopsy, from a third party company. Helped guide the treatments.

Re: Overall, the colorectal cancer story is encouraging

#103

Post by dexwiz »

caminante wrote: post #85
cogman10 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We millennials are all middle age. There's roughly 4 to 5 generations alive at any point and the middle generation is going to be considered both old and young by the generations surrounding it. Once Gen beta starts we'll be officially old.

Middle age != Middle generation. I understand your point. But you're redefining widely accepted usage of these terms. Nobody would call a 30 year old "middle age."

You're right. 8 year olds would call you ancient and 80 year olds would call you a baby. Middle age is relative and unless you're over 45 you don't admit to it, and then hold on to it for too long.

Re: Overall, the colorectal cancer story is encouraging

#104

Post by rootusrootus »

jorblumesea wrote: post #71
y-curious wrote: post #16

I’m in my early 30s and am starting to think about getting a screening. Problem is, it’s not trivial to do. You have to really upsell your doctor to get one so early, even though it’s a relatively benign procedure. There is a noninvasive testing method called Shield but it is way too flawed to be reliable (with poor positive rates for malignant tumors)

while it sucks, paying for it out of pocket is probably cheaper if you can't get it covered. In the long run, $1500 as a bridge until your 40s feels cheaper than stage 4 cancer.

$1500? That sounds optimistic. I'm getting an upper endoscopy tomorrow and they've already told me it will be $4K. The equipment is similar, I expect colonoscopy is not cheaper.

Re: Overall, the colorectal cancer story is encouraging

#105

Post by maxerickson »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #59
nphardon wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you tell your doctor that a parent had polyps removed (say, recently), that will give you your best chance of getting one. Most likely, if you're in an even remotely progressive area, your doc wants you to have one, but their hands are tied by the insurance company. Afaik you dont have to provide any proof of your claim re parental polyps.

> but their hands are tied by the insurance company. Doctors' ability to prescribe or refer is never restricted by an insurance company. If they think a patient should get whatever healthcare, they are free to say it.

You are just ignoring their intended meaning. Boring.

Re: Overall, the colorectal cancer story is encouraging

#106

Post by sumeno »

hansvm wrote: post #33
elric wrote: post #28

If anyone here is up for disrupting the medical field: please come up with a colonoscopy-equivalent with a less awful prep experience.

I think they could do pretty well just not adding bubble gum or whatever nasty flavors the prep has. Sure it'll still be unpleasant and salty, but burping up that nonsense all day really doesn't make it better.

Depending on the doctor some are now recommending getting a tub of miralax, mixing it all into gatorade, and using that for prep instead of the prescription stuff.

Still sucks, but at least it isn't a disgusting flavor, although I haven't had a desire for blue gatorade in the last 3 years

Re: Overall, the colorectal cancer story is encouraging

#107

Post by helterskelter »

greedo wrote: post #79
helterskelter wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lie about family history, but even colonoscopies are not perfect; I just had somebody in my family die of CRC because... - They had symptoms and wanted a screening, but their PCP repeatedly denied them a referral for like a year because they were "too young". - They lied about family history after symptoms got worse and got their referral. - They got the colonoscopy which came back clean, and then symptoms continued…

IANAL, just a CRC survivor and one who had my PCP miss my diagnosis a year before I started treatment. You may have a pretty good malpractice claim.

I'm a little removed from the situation, (not my nuclear family) but I believe the statute is up. It's too difficult to litigate in, say, the first two years of your stage 4 diagnosis before the law won't allow a suit.

Re: Overall, the colorectal cancer story is encouraging

#108

Post by ALittleLight »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #72

My Dr just ordered a test for colon cancer. If it's positive, I'm dead. I don't have enough savings to score a hospital bed, nevertheless surgery. In this, I'm in the same boat as millions of other Americans. Positive medical news rarely applies to us.

Nonsense. There are many ways to get free or reduced price medical care in the US, especially if you are poor. Your doctor will have resources to help you if needed.

You can also rack up huge medical debt and then not pay it. The hospital will sell your debt to bill collectors who will call you for a while, and eventually sue you. At that point you can offer to settle for pennies on the dollar, or you might lose the lawsuit and have to declare bankruptcy which would mean you have negative credit for a few years.

Obviously it will be a difficult time, and hopefully you have something else, but they won't just let you die because you can't afford it.

Re: Overall, the colorectal cancer story is encouraging

#109

Post by greedo »

PenguinCoder wrote: post #102
greedo wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too was diagnosed with stage 2 rectal cancer, but it was back in 2005. How did they determine your cause was genetic?

Did the genetic genome tests from the biopsy, from a third party company. Helped guide the treatments.

Ah, that definitely wasn't offered to me as an option. Glad to see the progress however. It would be nice if there was an alternative test so that I could tell my kids it's not genetic.

Re: Overall, the colorectal cancer story is encouraging

#110

Post by timr »

greygoo222 wrote: post #50
kazinator wrote: post #24

If you screen more people for the disease, and do it better, such that you reduce the incidences and fatalities in the 50+ cohort, that improvement logically implies that you must be catching incidences in the under 50 cohort. So it's going to skew the numbers. Incidences that would have been tallied in the 50+ cohort, are now counted in the under 50. E.g. a 45-year-old with a latent colorectal cancer who would previ…

This mostly can't explain the fact that mortality is also rising in under 50s. It is true mortality is rising less than incident, and that a small proportion instances of mortality could be deaths related to reasonable risks taken on from treatment side effects (to make up numbers, it makes sense to take a 5% chance of dying from treatment this year over a 80% chance of dying from cancer in 5 years), but this is prob…

Go look at the graphs again. The “split by age” graph shows an increase in diagnosis of ~60%, but an increase in mortality of only ~10%. That’s not a small difference, and we aren’t that good at curing colon cancer.

GP’s hypothesis is one of the leading explanations for this trend, but of course gets rejected by advocates for colonoscopy. Taking into account error bars on these numbers (which author doesn’t show, because they are inconvenient to the argument being made), it seems at least somewhat likely that the explanation for the rise in younger cases is due to increased screening, with the “increased” mortality either being statistical noise, or misattribution of deaths that also would have occurred in earlier periods.

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