The pain was so clear that Chris Williams took to the hospital.
It was a Tuesday evening in September 2021 when Williams began to feel abdominal pain and nausea. The next morning, it was worsened.
“I had to go to the emergency room,” said Williams, who lives in Brooklyn.
In the hospital, he received an appendicitis diagnosis and was surgically removed his annex. About a week later, he met his medical team to withdraw the staples and discuss the next steps – and it was then that he received shocking news.
“They found a tumor seated in my annex, and they biopted this tumor and determined that it was cancer,” said Williams, who was 48 years old at the time.
“It was actually a blessing,” he said. “It was really only a boon, in my eyes, and a blessing for me to detect the tumor – so that the tumor triggers my annex to break almost to find it – because later, they discovered that it was stadium III. If it had remained more difficult to treat.
Williams, who is now without cancer after finishing Treatment in November 2022 is part of an increasing group of patients with cancer in annex to the United States who was diagnosed at a young age.
‘Alarming and disturbing’
The appendix, which plays a role in Support the immune systemis a small pocket -shaped organ that is attached to the large intestine at the bottom right of the abdomen.
Although the appendix cancer is rare – generally, it is estimated To allocate approximately 1 or 2 people per 1 million people in the United States each year – diagnostics increases sharply among generation X and generation Y, according to a new study.
Compared to people born from 1941 to 1949, the incidence rates of cancer of the annex were more than tripled among those born between 1976 and 1984 and more than quadrupled among people born between 1981 and 1989, according to research published this week Annals of internal medicine. These incidence increases occurred from 1975 to 2019.
“It is alarming overall,” said Dr. Andreana Holowatyj, the main study of the study and assistant professor of hematology and oncology at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt-Iningram Center.
“We see some of these generational effects for colon cancers, rectum, stomach, and this is one of the reasons why we were curious to explore it in rare cancers of the annex. But nevertheless, the rates and trends we observed were alarming and disturbing, “she said.
Researchers of the new study – of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, of the West Virginia University and the University of Texas Health Science – analyzed the data on 4,858 people in the United States, 20 years or over, which had been diagnosed with annex cancer between 1975 and 2019. The data came from the results of the results.
The data was separated into five -year age groups and showed an increase in the rate of the incidence of cancer of the annex by birth cohort, especially in people born after 1945, the researchers wrote in the study.
Although the new study has not specifically examined why this incidence is increasing, the researchers say that it is “unlikely” to be explained by the progress of screening for diagnostic or diagnostic tools.
“There are no standardized screening techniques for appendic cancers. Many of them are accidentally formed after the presentation of something like acute appendicitis,” said Holowatyj.
The trend can rather be linked to “environmental exhibitions that can increase the risk for generations that are currently entering adults,” wrote researchers. And similar trends “have also been reported for colon, rectal and gastric cancer cancer”, which suggests that possible risk factors can contribute to gastrointestinal cancers as a whole.
For example, obesity has been identified as a risk factor for the diagnosis of cancer of the appendix and is recognized as a risk factor in colon cancer, said Holowatyj, adding that identification of risk factors could stimulate these trends in the incidence of cancer could help reveal ways to prevent the disease.
“The fact that we see these parallel tendencies through other cancers of the gastrointestinal tract tells us or suggests that there can be shared and distinct risk factors that can contribute to the development of cancer in the young generations in the gastrointestinal tract,” said Holowatyj.
“This will be important to understand-what are these shared factors, or how these risk factors differ, both in amplitude and absolute risk in these types of gastrointestinal cancer-to help us support the development of effective prevention strategies and ultimately aim to reduce this burden or to reverse these trends,” she said.
There are no specific screening recommendations for cancer of the appendix, but Symptoms of the disease Generally includes abdominal or pelvic pain, bloating, nausea and vomiting – which can often imitate the symptoms of appendicitis. Annex cancer can be treated by surgery, in which the appendix is deleted. If cancer has spread, patients often receive chemotherapy.
“This is a disease where, if it is not captured before the annex rupture, tumor cells often disperse in the abdominal cavity,” said Holowatyj. “This is why up to 1 in 2 patients receives a diagnosis of metastatic disease” or a cancer that has spread.
The study showing an increase in the incidence of annex cancer in young adults does not surprise Dr. Andrea Cercek, co -director of the Center for Early Beginning Colorectal and GI Cancers at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which treated Williams.
“We know that cancer in the early annex is part of the greatest history of early gastrointestinal cancers, including colorectal cancer,” said Cercek, who was not involved in the new research.
She saw the first -hand trend among her own patients – but it is still not clear what specific factors can stimulate these increases.
“There are many suspects, including lifestyle changes, food changes. People talk about obesity, less activity. But there is nothing that corresponds to everyone. And then there are environmental changes,” said Cercek. “I think it’s probably a type of combination, something multifactorial, but we haven’t identified it yet. Fortunately there is a lot of work now, a lot of research in this area. ”
Despite the growing impact, Cercek stressed that cancers in the appendix remain rare.
“It is very rare, even if it increases,” she said. “However, it is an important part of this global history of the increase in cancer in young adults.”
Williams’ trip after his cancer diagnosis was not easy, he said, but he remains grateful to his care team. After being diagnosed, he asked for treatment at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where he suffered additional surgery and suffered chemotherapy.
“For me, I could look at it in two different ways. I could moan. I could complain. I could say: “Woe to me. Or I could be grateful that it was found and that there was a solution in terms of treatment, “said Williams. “It could have ended up being something that killed me, and because it was not the case, I feel like I have everything that is grateful.”
Before his diagnosis of cancer, Williams thought he was doing everything correctly. He ate a mainly healthy diet and exercised regularly, but as a project manager at the time For New York State, he also felt a lot of stress.
At 42, he had his first heart attack, he said. He had a second heart attack a few weeks after his diagnosis of appendix cancer. Then a third occurred shortly after his surgery at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, he said. And last year, Williams had a fourth heart attack. Blocks were found in his heart, and he said that he had been treated with a Stenting, in which a flexible tube was placed in the arteries to increase blood flow to the heart.
“Much of what I experienced is due to stress,” said Williams.
“My personality was the one where I have internalized a lot. Especially in men, we tend to internalize a lot because we have the impression that we have to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders,” he said. “But in doing so, as you are internal, you are sick. This internalization leads to stress, and this can lead to heart disease, which can lead to strokes, which can lead to cancer.”
Inspired by his own health challenges, Williams launched the heart -based non -profit -based heart, body and soul to connect colored communities, in particular black men in bad communities, with physical and mental health tools as well as increased communication with health care providers to help improve their global health.
“We also teach them how to plead for themselves because we are largely part of the challenges faced, especially when they have conversations with men of color, is the concern of not being seen or heard when they enter a hospital,” said Williams, adding that he highlights the importance of listening to your body and having a primary care doctor.
“Especially at the time when we see things happening like men and women diagnosed at ages earlier with various diseases, I really think it is important for us to start prioritizing the establishment of a care team,” he said. “We must adopt a more holistic approach to the way we deal with and how we take care of ourselves.”