What to Know About Appendiceal Cancer

The actor Adan Canto’s death from appendiceal cancer—or cancer of the appendix—came as a shock to his fans. Canto, who died on Jan. 8 at age 42, had kept his diagnosis and treatment private, and his family has not publicly shared any information about how long Canto lived with the disease. Here’s what to know about the rare condition. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] What is appendiceal cancer? A rare form of intestinal cancer, appendix cancer—like colorectal cancer—is on the rise for unknown reasons. “In the last century, the rates were around one to two per million people, but more recently, it’s been nearly one per 100,000 people,” says Dr. Alok Khorana, a medical oncologist and colorectal cancer researcher at the Cleveland Clinic. Cases in people under 50, like Canto, are rarer still. That may partly be because they are underdiagnosed. Appendiceal cancer can be harder to spot in young people than in older patients, says Khorana, primarily because doctors just aren’t looking for it as often. “Among intestinal cancers in younger people, diagnosis does take longer, and they tend to need to go to multiple different health care providers before a diagnosis is made,” he says. How is appendix cancer diagnosed?  Appendix cancer can occur without any obvious symptoms until a person experiences pain in the area around the appendix. People are most often diagnosed when they s...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Source Type: news