Famous people who have suffered from colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer is still considered a shameful disease. «Why did the cancer have to end up there of all places. It’s embarrassing »said Sharon Osbourne years ago. But she was lucky – she overcame the disease and today she urges regular examinations. Because colon cancer is one of the more insidious cancers – it develops for many years without showing any symptoms. And the chances of recovery are greater the sooner changes are detected. There are more famous people who attacked colon cancer. Get to know their stories.

1. Colorectal cancer can develop in hiding for years without any obvious symptoms
2. The test that detects neoplastic changes is a colonoscopy. Anyone over 50 should do it
3. Many celebrities suffered from colorectal cancer, incl. Audrey Hepburn, Queen Mother Elizabeth, President Ronald Reagan
4. You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page

What increases the risk of colon cancer?

At the beginning, however, the most important information about colorectal cancer, which is the second most common cancer in Poland. Every year, over a dozen thousand people hear a devastating diagnosis. In 2014, there were 17 thousand. but the prognosis says that there will be more and more patients each year. It is estimated that in 2030, colon cancer will affect 27 people. Poles.

The risk of developing this type of cancer increases with age. Most often it affects people between the ages of 50 and 60. People with a family history of other malignant neoplasms (especially uterine, prostate, ovarian and breast cancer) or adenomatous polyposis and those who suffer from chronic colitis should be tested for colorectal cancer.

The development of colorectal cancer is also fostered by obesity, low physical activity, smoking, alcohol abuse, a diet rich in fried red meat and animal fats, and low in vegetables and fruits.

Colon Cancer Symptoms – What Should You Concern?

Colorectal cancer develops insidiously, without any symptoms for many years. However, the following should be worrying:

1. Constipation – As the cancer grows (that is, when polyps inside the intestine grow), its internal cross-section (known as the lumen) decreases. In very advanced cancer, this can lead to a blockage in the intestine.
2. Change in bowel movements that cannot be explained by a change in diet or lifestyle.
3. Diarrhea combined with large amounts of gas that last for many weeks.
4. Anemia, which we most often feel in the form of decreased efficiency, greater susceptibility to fatigue and increased temperature.
5.   Pain in the abdomen and lower back, discomfort, nausea, vomiting and difficulty swallowing.
6. Nausea and a feeling of incomplete bowel movements.
7. Blood stains on paper or underwear, rectal bleeding. Here, it is very important to delimit any bleeding that may be caused by rupture of the hemorrhoids, i.e. hemorrhoids.

Each of these symptoms should make us visit a doctor.

1. Editors recommend: Eight most common symptoms of colon cancer

Time is of the essence in the treatment of colorectal cancer – what test should be performed?

Treatment of colorectal cancer largely depends on its stage. People who consult an oncologist in the first stage of the disease’s development have as much as 90 percent. chances of recovery. In order to detect changes at an early stage, proper prophylaxis is necessary, i.e. regular examinations. Every person (regardless of gender) over 50 years of age should undergo a colonoscopy. This examination may decide about the rest of your life. Only in this way can all precancerous changes be detected. You can also order a home test kit for stomach problems, which includes: a Helicobacter pylori test and a fecal occult blood test. These tests will help diagnose colorectal cancer.

This is evidenced by some stories of famous people who contracted colorectal cancer.

Elizabeth, Queen Mother – mother of Queen Elizabeth II

Photo: A stamp printed in Great Britain issued on the occasion of the 80th birthday of the Queen Mother / Shutterstock / Lefteris Papaulakis

“The Queen Mother had colon cancer,” the BBC reported in September 2009. It was seven years after Elizabeth’s death (she died on March 30, 2002 in her sleep). Such information was disclosed in the official biography of the Queen Mother published in 2009. She developed colon cancer at the age of 66. During an operation that lasted an hour and a half at King Edward VII Hospital in London in 1966, the tumor was removed.

Ronald Reagan – 40th president of the United States, 33rd governor of California, actor

Fot: Prezydent Ronald Reagan, 1989 rok / Shutterstock / mark reinstein

A cancerous polyp in the large intestine was detected in Reagan in 1985 during a routine colonoscopy. It was the fourth year of his presidency. The politician was then 74 years old and very lucky: a cancer diagnosed in the first stagewhich means the cancer has not penetrated the deeper layers of the colon and has not spread. In such cases, surgery is the best and most effective option. It was conducted at Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland.

Dr. Steven Rosenberg of the National Cancer Institute then argued that the chances of a full recovery from the president were high because the cancer had not spread to the surrounding nerves or lymph nodes. His prediction turned out to be correct – Ronald Reagan lived to be 93 years old (he died in 2004).

Sharon Osbourne – wife and manager of Ozzy Osbourne, television personality

Fot. Sharon Osbourne / Shutterstock / Entertainment Press

The then 49-year-old Sharon Osbourne found out that she had colon cancer in 2002. The celebrity put off visiting a doctor for three years, and finally, at the urging of her husband, decided to do it. – You think that nothing will ever happen to you. You are invincible, she would say later, but the diagnosis brought “shock and panic”. “Once you overcome them, you will realize how lucky you are to be alive,” he admits.

Surgeons removed the cancer-changed part of the colon, but the lesions were also found in the lymph nodes. Sharon Osbourne underwent three months of chemotherapy. “Why did the cancer have to end up there of all places?” It’s embarrassing, she admitted in People magazine.

He looks at this issue differently today. The celebrity works in the American Cancer Society promoting knowledge about colon cancer awareness. “Carry out colon cancer screening” is the most important message he has today.

Although treatment for colon cancer was successful, Sharon Osbourne opted for a prophylactic double mastectomy in 2012 (tests showed that she was at high risk of developing breast cancer).

Jan Kobuszewski – actor, theater director, cabaret artist, satirist known, for example, from Kabaret Dudek, Kabaret Starszych Panów or Olga Lipińska’s Cabaret

Jan Kobuszewski also struggled with cancer of the colon cancer. Thanks to an early diagnosis, he was able to overcome the disease. In 2007, he became the face of an educational campaign to fight colorectal cancer initiated by the Oncology Center in Warsaw.

In the same year, while visiting the Jasna Góra sanctuary, he said: “Thank you very much for being alive, because I had quite a difficult illness. It was colon cancer. I urge everyone who has any difficulties to undergo testing. Remember, thanks to the Lord God, the Holy Mother, cancer is curable if it is “caught” at the right moment, as witnessed by me. I have already lived 21 years after the operation “- (from http://jasnagora.com).

Three years later, in an interview for Super Express, he admitted: – I respect my existence more not so much. The greatest joy for me, after all these hard times and stays in the hospital, was my return home, to my family. It was then that I appreciated this moment, I realized how many trivial matters I once considered important.

The artist died on September 28, 2019, he was 85 years old.

Audrey Hepburn – film and theater actress, popular culture icon, UNICEF ambassador

Audrey Hepburn found out that she had bowel cancer in 1992. It was a rare cancer known as pseudo-myxoma (PMP). The onset of the disease is the formation of a mucous cyst, most often in the appendix (as in the case of an actress), in subsequent stages more tumors are formed.

“Doctors gave her three months to live,” recalled Audrey Hepburn’s longtime partner Robert Wolders at the moment of her diagnosis. «She admitted that she was afraid of pain, but not afraid of death»- he said. The actress died on January 20, 1993. She was 63 years old.

You may be interested in:

1. Tumors that kill fastest
2. The most common malignant neoplasms among Polish women and men
3. Bowel diseases – how to recognize them and how to treat them?

The content of the medTvoiLokony website is intended to improve, not replace, the contact between the Website User and their doctor. The website is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Before following the specialist knowledge, in particular medical advice, contained on our Website, you must consult a doctor. The Administrator does not bear any consequences resulting from the use of information contained on the Website. Do you need a medical consultation or an e-prescription? Go to halodoctor.pl, where you will get online help – quickly, safely and without leaving your home.Now you can use e-consultation also free of charge under the National Health Fund.

The content of the medTvoiLokony website is intended to improve, not replace, the contact between the Website User and their doctor. The website is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Before following the specialist knowledge, in particular medical advice, contained on our Website, you must consult a doctor. The Administrator does not bear any consequences resulting from the use of information contained on the Website. Do you need a medical consultation or an e-prescription? Go to halodoctor.pl, where you will get online help – quickly, safely and without leaving your home.Now you can use e-consultation also free of charge under the National Health Fund.