“You’re Too Young for Cancer”

[00:00:06]That polyp will now be classed as colorectal cancer and the rates in young people have doubled since 1990 and are still rising. I'm Dr. Seremid, let's look at the facts. The issue with colorectal cancer is if it's left unchecked then it can grow uncontrollably blocking the bowel leading to severe bleeds and spreading to distant [music] organs. For these reasons we want to catch those cancers early with a colonoscopy where they can just be clipped and burned off rather than needing major surgery to be able to remove a big tumor. [music] The US Preventive Services Task Force recognized the significance of this and therefore recommended moving the bowel cancer screening age to 45 in the US although screening [music] is still from 50 in the UK. This typically starts from doing a poo test to see if there's any blood and then moving to a sigmoid or colonoscopy afterwards to check for any polyps. So if you have symptoms of bowel cancer like unexplained weight loss, rectal bleeding or change in bowel habit, then please do get checked or also if you're eligible for screening.