Young people being diagnosed with colon cancer at higher rates; doctor speaks on prevention, screening

AUSTIN, Texas - March is National Colon Cancer Awareness Month. 

According to this year's Cancer Facts and Statistics report from the American Cancer Society, cancer deaths are down, but younger people are being diagnosed with some cancers at a higher rate, especially colon cancer.

Dr. Sanjana Luther, a gastroenterologist with Austin Gastroenterology, joined FOX 7 Austin's Rebecca Thomas to discuss.

Local perspective:

Rebecca: What is behind the rise in colon cancer cases in people under the age of 50? 

Dr. Luther: Well, there's a lot that's still being researched to figure this out, but a lot of things are thought to be something within the diet and obesity rates rising and various other, maybe even environmental toxins or pollutants as well. 

Rebecca: What are some symptoms to watch out for? 

Dr. Luther: So a change in your bowel habits, abdominal pain blood on your stool. But I think the most concerning thing of all is that some people have absolutely no symptoms before they present to us, and that's when sometimes we find a cancer at that point. 

Rebecca: Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S.. But the good news is it's very treatable when detected early. So let's talk about screening. The CDC says people should start getting screened at the age of 45. We've all heard about colonoscopies, but there are other tests that use stool samples and more recently, blood samples. What are your thoughts on all of these? Which is best? 

Dr. Luther: So the gold standard is still your colonoscopy. And the reason that we find this one to be the best is that it's real time. You're doing a procedure where there's a camera at the end of a scope that we're driving through the colon, and we're able to remove polyps, and real-time polyps are the little growths that can be the precursors to these cancers. Sometimes it can be completely benign, precancerous, and then sometimes we even end up finding cancer during real time. The other tests are kind of more like screening. And it has to be a point where there's actually a lesion already present. So these are the blood tests or stool-based testing. 

Rebecca: So the colonoscopy is our base our kind of preventative as well. Correct. 

Dr. Luther: Yeah. It's basically when we talk about colon cancer screening with a colonoscopy, you're really getting colon cancer prevention. So you can actually remove those polyps before they turn into anything more worrisome. 

Rebecca: Now Austin Gastroenterology is now using AI-assisted colonoscopies. How does that work? How is it different? 

Dr. Luther: So basically, typically you adjust your eyes on the camera and looking for these polyps, I now adds a whole database of photos that are helping to identify polyps as well. So it's essentially an extra set of eyes in the room. It's using technology that is available now, much like AI is being used everywhere these days, this is the way we're able to incorporate it into our practice. 

Rebecca: Finally, let's talk about some of the ways to lower your risk of getting colon cancer. 

Dr. Luther: Drinking lots of water, fiber, fiber, fiber, focusing on your health in general, and then overall dietary things. I mean, some suggest the Mediterranean diet, but working on just overall lifestyle. That's a healthy lifestyle, dietary changes that are healthy and then working to lower to reduce the risk of obesity. All those kinds of things can help long term with reducing your risk of colon cancer. 

Rebecca: All right. Dr. Sanjana Luther with Austin Gastroenterology, thank you so much for sharing your time and, of course, your expertise with us tonight.