BOSTON (WHDH) - The news hit John Veale hard.
“It almost feels like a bullet through your heart,” said Veale, a Boston resident. “I remember just collapsing on my bed, thinking the absolute worst. You do a couple of Google searches and it’s not great for the prognosis.”
Veale was just 33 years old when he received that call last summer. The call where doctors told him he had stage four colorectal cancer.
“Turns your stomach upside down, flipped my world upside down,” Veale said.
His world revolved around his fiance Elyssa and planning their life together. Cancer sent shock waves through those plans in an instant.
“When John first got diagnosed, I think we both couldn’t believe it. He is a very active person. We are always kind of on the move, we eat healthy, so it was never really on our radar,” Elyssa Carlson admitted. “It was just really scary.”
The diagnosis blindsided them because Veale doesn’t have any family history or known risk factors associated with colorectal cancer. The only symptom he had was blood in his stool, which he didn’t think much of. Now he knows that was an early warning sign.
“I just can’t believe I was harboring this inside of me for so long,” Veale said.
Veale’s physician, Dr. Kimmie Ng, said she’s seeing more and more cases of younger patients with this cancer.
“It is really frightening and I think the most frightening thing about it is we don’t completely understand why it is that these rates are rising in young people without risk factors,” Ng said.
Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death in young adults.
This alarming rise has drawn national attention, especially in the wake of the deaths of actors James Van Der Beek and Chadwick Boseman. Both actor died from the disease in their forties.
“I got diagnosed with colorectal cancer in August of 2023. It was stage 3. I think I just went into shock,” Van Der Beek shared in one of his Instagram posts.
Like Van Der Beek, Dr. Ng says many younger patients are diagnosed at later stages when it’s harder to treat.
Doctors are scrambling to understand why.
“We really need to figure out what the risk factors are, what the underlying causes are if we are to come up with new ways to prevent this disease in young people,” Dr. Ng explained.
To help get answers, Dr. Ng helped create one of the country’s first colorectal cancer centers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
She is now the founding director of the Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center, which is invested in researching this cancer.
“We’re looking at things like the microbiome which is all the organisms that live in our gut and whether they may be contributing to increased risk,” Dr. Ng explained.
Some research has suggested a link between colorectal cancer and processed foods, a lack of exercise, alcohol use and sugary drinks. However, Ng said there are still many unknowns and no singular cause.
“Honestly, most of the patients that we are caring for in clinic are not obese and they follow very healthy lifestyles, many are elite athletes, so there must be something else,” Ng said.
As she and others search for that something else, her center is providing treatment and support to young people fighting this unexpected battle.
“It’s the craziest time in your life and throw cancer in and it’s a lot,” Veale said. “I couldn’t do it without my Dana-Farber team.”
In addition to traditional treatment, Veale is part of a clinical trial. Eight months after his diagnosis, he said his cancer has decreased.
“We’re really closing in so it’s hard not to get excited about the finish line but I know there is still a long way to go,” Veale said. “To even talk about beating this, the recurrence is very high and to fully beat this, you have to knock out every last cell.”
It’s a battle he plans to continue to fight hard everyday, not only for himself but for those around him.
“You almost feel like when they are hoping for you, you have to fight for them,” Veale said.
It’s a sentiment that his support system doesn’t take lightly.
“John makes this look easy, truly, he makes it easy to want to fight,” Carlson said. “Every day is a new day and I think just being grateful for every day that maybe we took advantage of before his diagnosis.”
Veale encourages everyone with any warning signs or risk factors to get a colonoscopy to screen for cancer.
The American Cancer Society recommends people start colorectal screenings at 45 years old.
But that wouldn’t catch many of the patients Dr. Ng sees.
Because of that, she recommends people with a family history, higher risk or ongoing symptoms get screened sooner.
Symptoms can include blood in your stools, abdominal pain, weight loss and changes in bowel habits.
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