BOSTON — Actor Chadwick Boseman, known for starring in ‘Black Panther’, died Friday at the age of 43. He was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer a few years ago and it progressed to Stage 4.
“It is a tragic loss of life and talent at way too early an age,” said Dr. Kimmie Ng, director at the Young Onset Colorectal Center at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. “This tragic event really amplifies our mission to really raise awareness around colorectal cancer.”
Dr. Ng said they’re noticing the rate of colon cancer among young people is rising at about 2% per year since the mid-1990′s, and those younger people are more often diagnosed with late-stage cancer that’s more difficult to cure.
“For many, many years now my colleagues and I were seeing young person after young person, very healthy lifestyle, no other risk factors, coming in diagnosed with very late stages of colorectal cancer,” Dr. Ng said. “We think that part of that is because cancer is simply not on the radar for somebody that’s young and healthy who develops these symptoms.”
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That’s why her team recently opened the Young Onset Colorectal Cancer Center at Dana Farber in Boston. It’s one of only a few clinics focused on treating young people with colon cancer while also trying to find a cure.
“The earlier stage you catch it at, the higher the cure rates,” said Dr. Ng. “Some Stage 4 patients can be cured, but the vast majority end up being incurable and this just points to the importance of early detection and prevention.”
The American Cancer Society lowered the screening age from 50 to 45 years old, but Dr. Ng said if you have a family history or symptoms of colon cancer, you should get screened even earlier.
“During COVID many people have been postponing their screening procedures and it’s really important patients not delay doing that because it can potentially save lives,” Dr. Ng said.
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