With the death of Chadwick Boseman today from Colon Cancer at the age of 43 (no age is good to die, but 43 is incredibly young) I implore everyone to look after themselves and get checked when things are happening that shouldn’t be.
Especially for the men on this forum, go and get that Doctor to shove their finger up your backside when you are supposed to. If you feel embarrassed by it the embarrassment will pass quickly, but the pain of a late cancer diagnosis will hurt much more.
Yes! You also are never too young for cancer to find you, get checked even if you are a lively young person.
Even more so if you have cases of any cancer in your family.
I second this, colon and rectal cancer is more common than you think. Also: Ladies, get your breasts checked, and guys, get your prostate checked, these cancer types are right up there with lung cancer in terms of frequency of occurrence
Got the scope last year (not the Silph kind) and the preparation leading up to it is worse than the actual procedure itself. Feel free to message me if you have any questions about it
Great post, I can’t emphasise this enough - I’m a pharmacist working for a large pharmaceutical company and have worked in a number of different types of cancers over the last 3 years (lung, head and neck, breast, renal and GI), late stage diagnosis (especially when the tumour has metastasised) is a death sentence. The goal at this point is too provide more time, not a cure. Those who enter complete remission are in the minority and varies greatly for different types of cancer. Cancer is very difficult to treat because it adapts to changes in its environment so well, for example, you increase the ability of the immune system to identify and target tumour cells and they find a way to evade the response or you block a specific cell signalling pathway that they rely on to survive and they begin to use other pathways that are not targeted.
The best chance at a cure is when the tumour is localised and you can resect it or use radiotherapy to eliminate the majority of the cells - once they have moved away from the site of origin, those options are less likely to succeed and your only options are systemic therapy (chemotherapy, targeted therapy or immunotherapy). The western worlds health systems are not optimised for early detection so it is up to individuals to ensure they are checked regularly. In Japan screening for gastrointestinal cancers is done regularly and at a earlier age, the majority of patients are diagnosed at stage II compared to the US and Europe where the majority are stage III and IV, survival outcomes are naturally higher for those tumours detected early.
In the next few years we will see the colonoscopy recommendation go from 50 to 45, and I think it should be even younger. If you are screening age and afraid to get the scope, at least talk to your doctor about Cologuard.
Outside a family history there are no prostate screening recs. Talk to your doctor, a one time screening PSA isn’t a bad idea with routine blood work.
The best way to tackle any malignancy is early screening. We are fortunate to be in the era of medicine where diagnostic tests for cancers with the highest incidence and/or mortality are readily available to the public, so please be proactive with your health and make the most of it.
I definitely second this, as myself being only 28 I am going through some health issues that came up unexpectedly. Earlier they find something the better your outcome.
Life is short. It just shows us to appreciate everyday we have! Take it easy guys and stay safe 
Recently my father lost his fight with cancer. They spotted it too late so it was never curable, only slowable.
Not being able to visit him during his last moments due to corona was hard. I managed to get this card to him though:
He always referred to himself as Snorlax, and the fact there are 2 Pikachus (his sons) and 1 Torchic (his daughter) on the card made it so perfect to at least make him feel like we were there with him. He couldn’t talk anymore but when he wanted to mention his children to the nurses or doctors he just pointed to this card.
Get checked, don’t trivialize health problems and don’t hide health issues from loved ones to “spare” them.But also live a good life while you still can.
Sending much heart and fire your way. So sorry for your loss. That’s a beautiful story. ; - ;