So many beautiful, glamourous women have died of colon cancer -- Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Montgomery, Carolyn Jones (Morticia Adamas), Eartha Kitt and now Farrah Fawcett -- that I am shocked there is not an awareness campaign out there, and a similar "run for the cure" as for breast cancer.
Did you know that:
...colon cancer is the second leading cancer killer of both men and women?
... if polyps are caught in time through regular colonoscopies some 90% of colon cancers can be prevented?
...there is only one chemotherapy drug for colon cancer, which has been used since the 1950s? (5-FU) In recent years, there have been some chemotherapy drugs approved for advanced (i.e., a platinum therapy) and metastatic colon cancer, but no miracle drugs so far. Contrast that with the wide array of options for breast cancer chemotherapy, a cancer that has received far more attention.
I'm lucky to be alive, because no one was interested in checking me for colon cancer when I was in my '20s -- I was dismissed with a "diagnosis" of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. By the time I was finally diagnosed at age 32, I had a more advanced cancer than I would have had I received proper care earlier.
What is scary is that I know many young women who have been given the diagnosis of "Irritable Bowel Disease" without benefit of a colonoscopy to eliminate other possible diseases and conditions.
I was lucky; colon cancer is often a silent killer.
It's about time that there was a public awareness campaign about colon cancer prevention.
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She was beautiful!!! As a child of the 80s I loved Charlie's Angels. My brother had her swimsuit poster up in his room. It is very sad.
ReplyDeleteOoops meant 70s, not 80s..
ReplyDeleteSo many beautiful, glamourous women have died of colon cancer -- Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Montgomery, Carolyn Jones (Morticia Adamas), Eartha Kitt and now Farrah Fawcett -- that I am shocked there is not an awareness campaign out there, and a similar "run for the cure" as for breast cancer.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that:
...colon cancer is the second leading cancer killer of both men and women?
... if polyps are caught in time through regular colonoscopies some 90% of colon cancers can be prevented?
...there is only one chemotherapy drug for colon cancer, which has been used since the 1950s? (5-FU) In recent years, there have been some chemotherapy drugs approved for advanced (i.e., a platinum therapy) and metastatic colon cancer, but no miracle drugs so far. Contrast that with the wide array of options for breast cancer chemotherapy, a cancer that has received far more attention.
I'm lucky to be alive, because no one was interested in checking me for colon cancer when I was in my '20s -- I was dismissed with a "diagnosis" of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. By the time I was finally diagnosed at age 32, I had a more advanced cancer than I would have had I received proper care earlier.
What is scary is that I know many young women who have been given the diagnosis of "Irritable Bowel Disease" without benefit of a colonoscopy to eliminate other possible diseases and conditions.
I was lucky; colon cancer is often a silent killer.
It's about time that there was a public awareness campaign about colon cancer prevention.
-monika