via BlackDoctor:
Shannon Sylvain remembers the exact moment she received the call from her doctor that would change her life forever. “My doctor asked if I was sitting down,” Sylvain recalled in an interview with Essence. “After telling her yes, I remember her voice cracking when she explained that they saw evidence of colon cancer during the procedure.”
Sylvain was 31 years old when she was diagnosed with colorectal (colon) cancer.
Something often missing from the colon cancer conversation is women, but according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Black women have the highest rate of developing colon cancer out of all women. Overall, Black men have the highest rate of getting colon cancer amongst all races
While the risk is slightly lower for women, colon cancer remains the third leading cause of cancer deaths among White, Black, and Asian women — right behind breast and lung cancer, the CDC reports.
A study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute discovered that there’s been a steady increase in the number of colon and rectal cancers among young people. Per the findings, people born in 1990 have twice the risk of colon cancer and four times the risk of rectal cancer when compared to those born in 1950.
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