Before Mohammad Samad was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer at age 37, he felt in the best shape of his life.
“I was eating all my greens, making those healthy smoothies in the morning. I was cycling, I was exercising. I was doing yoga and meditation,” the former project manager, who is based in the UK, told Business Insider.
A sudden, stabbing pain in Samad’s lower abdomen in October 2020, which lasted 20 seconds, was the first sign that something was wrong.
“The force of it just made me fall to my knees,” he said.
By December, the pain was more intense and happening every morning and night. He could also feel a hard, golf ball-sized lump in the area.
Soon, he was exhausted all the time, and often constipated and bloated. The lunch breaks he used to spend shooting hoops at a local park became nap time.
Samad presumed his symptoms were related to stress and his diet, or that he possibly had COVID-19. “In my head, it didn’t seem that bad,” he said.
But in January 2021, when he started to feel the lump, he finally went to see a doctor at his wife’s request.
In the five months that followed, he made multiple visits to three different doctors and was misdiagnosed with stress, IBS, and Crohn’s disease. Eventually, Samad was diagnosed with colon cancer.
“They would look at me and go, ‘You’re young, you’re fit, you’re healthy. We can see that.’ And so they assume that it is a minor thing,” he said of his doctor’s visits.
The symptoms of colon cancer and conditions including IBS overlap, which means doctors tread a tightrope when diagnosing younger, generally healthy patients.
Samad’s experience isn’t unusual for young cancer patients. A 2020 survey by the charity Bowel Cancer UK of 1,295 colorectal cancer patients diagnosed under the age of 50 found that 42% said doctors told them they were too young to have the disease. In addition, two-thirds were initially misdiagnosed with conditions that have similar symptoms, such as IBS, hemorrhoids, or anaemia. The survey echoes wider research on the misdiagnoses of young cancer patients.
The common symptoms of early-onset colon cancer include blood in the stool, abdominal pain, weight loss, loss of appetite, and constipation.
Samad was misdiagnosed with IBS and Crohn’s disease
The first doctor that Samad visited said she couldn’t feel a lump when she pressed down on his abdomen, and suggested he could have “a blockage,” likely caused by stress. She prescribed Samad laxatives and told him to return if his symptoms didn’t improve.
Four weeks later, when the laxatives hadn’t helped, a different doctor prescribed him IBS medication and more laxatives. The doctor also recommended following an elimination diet to see if certain foods triggered the IBS symptoms.
When things didn’t improve after two weeks and Samad was told to keep taking the IBS medication and eliminating more foods, he demanded a blood test.
“I kind of just put my foot down and said, ‘I’m not leaving without a test,'” he said. It showed Samad had concerning levels of inflammation in his body, which was confirmed by blood and stool tests at the emergency room.
In May 2021, seven months after he first felt the intense pain, Samad was referred to a specialist who thought he had Crohn’s disease.
A colonoscopy, where a thin tube with a microscopic camera on the end is placed into the rectum and colon, showed Samad had a tumor, which a biopsy confirmed was advanced colon cancer.
“Fortunately, it hadn’t spread, but it was at that stage where they said to me, ‘We’re going to throw the kitchen sink at it,” Samad said.
His mind “entered a black hole” as the oncologist talked through the next steps. Samad’s dad had recently died of COVID-19, and he worried about how his diagnosis would impact his family.
“How do I tell my mom who’s just lost a life partner? How do I tell my siblings? How do I tell my children who have just been introduced to the concept of death by a loved one?” said Samad, whose two children were age 8 and 6 at the time.
Samad’s treatment was derailed by infections
Samad had chemotherapy to shrink the tumor and surgery to remove it, but after two chemo cycles lasting four weeks each, he was hospitalized by a “nasty” infection for five months.
During that time, he was too unwell to have chemo, and his tumor grew to the size of a small watermelon.
“The tumour was getting larger and larger, and eventually they said, ‘Your bowel is now perforated, bleeding all these toxins into your system,” he said.
Samad had to have emergency surgery to remove it, which was successful, but left him with nerve damage in his leg and need to use a stoma bag. He has ongoing health issues, but has been cancer-free for two years.
“I get regular checkups, and I’ve been given the all clear, which is amazing,” he said.
The tumor tested positive for Lynch syndrome
Samad’s tumor tested positive for a genetic condition called Lynch Syndrome, which increases a person’s risk of developing a number of cancers, including colon cancer.
The number of younger people without Lynch syndrome developing colon cancer despite leading healthy lifestyles is on the rise, for reasons scientists are trying to uncover.
If caught early, colon cancer is often treatable. The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends that people start getting screened at regular intervals when they turn 45, and people with a higher-than-average risk should ask a healthcare professional about when they should start testing.
In around March 2022, Samad started a blog to share his experience and raise awareness of the rising rates of colon cancer in young people.
“There’s still that association that cancer is only for old people. It can affect everyone,” he said, adding: “Just listen to your body, go see a specialist, check those symptoms, and really push for it.”
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