Rise in bowel cancer cases among under-50s prompts warning from survivors

Kathryn Duncan’s life looks much like that of any other woman in her 30s. She works full-time as a retail manager, makes time to exercise, and enjoys socialising with friends.

But three years ago, her world was turned upside down.

At just 36 years old, Kathryn was diagnosed with bowel cancer.

She noticed her symptoms worsening before her diagnosis, but says her concerns were initially dismissed

She said: “I knew something wasn’t right. It’s been going on for a long time, and it was getting to the point that it was just unmanageable.

“I had to keep pushing the doctors. They thought it could be IBS or that I could be allergic to something I was eating.”

Symptoms of bowel cancer can include a change in toilet habits, stomach pain, blood in stools and unexplained weight loss.

Kathryn visited her GP repeatedly for seven months before she was finally referred for a colonoscopy – a camera examination of the bowel. The test revealed a tumour, and major surgery followed. She has since made a full recovery.

Kathryn believes the delay was down to her age, with her risk wrongly assumed to be low.

Cases like hers are becoming more common. The number of under-50s diagnosed with bowel cancer in Scotland has risen by 49% over the past decade – from six to nine per 100,000 people. Younger patients are also more likely to be diagnosed at a later stage.

And this rise isn’t just happening in Scotland; it’s being seen around the world.

Dr Santi Susanti, a cancer researcher from Indonesia working at the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute, studies how genetics may increase the risk of early-onset bowel cancer.

“In my home country, we have about 30% of early onset colorectal cancer among all those colorectal cancer patients, while in the West, for instance, the UK is counted for 10%, but it’s rising. So it’s a global phenomenon that we see at the moment.”

Her work is shaped by a deeply personal experience. She was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in her 20s, while already studying the disease.

Santi said: “I was already studying cancer. I was supposed to go back to Australia to do my PhD and I took a break back in Indonesia, where I come from, and during that time I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer.

“I was under 30 at the time, obviously being a cancer researcher and then suddenly diagnosed with cancer myself is a huge, huge experience and also an emotional rollercoaster.”

She underwent surgery and chemotherapy, and now lives with a stoma. Her experience, she says, drives her work every day.

Santi added: “I feel that I have a mission in doing what I’m doing at the moment, but on top of that, it’s also sharing the optimism toward another cancer patient or cancer survival.

“It’s never easy because once you got diagnosed, even though you are in remission, it’s always there in the back of your head.

“That or could it come back and and it’s basically already impacted yourself. So because of that, I think whatever that we can do to make the treatment or the experience it will be helpful and that’s become that’s how I want to spend my life and my time.”

Santi is part of a Glasgow-based team working to better understand who is most at risk and how treatment can be improved for younger patients like her and Kathryn.

Watch the full report on Scotland Tonight at 7.30pm on STV and the STV Player.