The Lesson We All Can Learn from Kirstie Alley's Death from Colon Cancer
Kirstie Alley who was made popular from movies like Look Who’s Talking Now, and shows like Star Trek and Cheers, died of colon cancer in 2022.
(Taken from my post on Linkedin)
Kirstie Alley “Suddenly” Gets Colon Cancer
Earlier this month, well-known actress Kirstie Alley, made national headlines after passing away from colon cancer at the age of 71.
A rep from the family said that the cancer was only "recently discovered." In response to that, there's a very important and fundamental lesson that we can learn from Kirstie's brief fight with colon cancer.
True, traditionally, colon cancer is the 3rd most common cause of cancer death in the U.S., and, indeed, most are commonly diagnosed right around 70 years of age. Alarmingly, however, when we find an advanced colon cancer, like that of Kirstie Alley's, the implication is that we, as physicians, are at least 5 years behind.
This is the case because it generally takes 5+ years to develop an early, precancerous polyp and another 5-10 years for that polyp to progress into an invasive, advanced cancer. Proactive screening can often find these cancers before they mature using the latest approaches (see below).
A very sobering statistic is that colorectal cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for Americans under 50. There has been a steady 1.2-2.5% annual rise in colorectal cancer.
If we don't change our lifestyles and habits, in 25 years we are looking at about a 50% increase in colorectal cancers!
How Preventable is Colon Cancer?
Colon Cancer Training
Colon cancer can be hereditary, with genetic predispositions being responsible for about 10-15% of colorectal cancers.
This suggests that upwards of 85% of colon cancers can, in fact, be prevented.
Colon Cancer Risk Factors
Colon cancer risk factors include -- being overweight, diabetes, consuming 5+ alcoholic drinks/week, smoking, being sedentary, consuming more than 1 serving of refined carbs and meats daily, being on recurrent antibiotics, *having a poor gut biodiversity,* and a low Vitamin D level.
These risk factors increase the likelihood of developing colon cancer anywhere from 15% to 50%, and, not surprisingly, having multiple simultaneous risk factors can exacerbate the risk.
Let's address the early detection of colon cancer, which could have affected Kirstie Alley's prognosis.
Standard of Care Screening Guidelines Show that We Need to Screen Earlier
In 2021, screening colonoscopy guidelines had changed to initiate screening at age 45, as opposed to 50 years old.
Also in 2021, the FDA approved an artificial intelligence enhanced colonoscopy (GI Genius) that had shown to quite drastically improve early colon polyp detection. Rapid advances have been made over the last five years looking to augment and help with colon cancer detection both in the stool and blood -- such as Cologuard and Guardant molecular testing.
We have further learned that over 90% of patients with very early colon cancer have an abnormal cancer genetic signature in their bloodstream, and we can laser in on these genetics to improve our early detection process.
My hope is that we, both as physicians and informed individuals, will take personal responsibility to lower those modifiable risk factors that make us sick.
Further Reading on Colon Cancer
