Colon cancer is rising in young adults and thousands of Ontarians want to lower the screening age – CTV
Feb. 25, 2024
When Bishop Brigante underwent his first chemotherapy session, he never expected it to end in joy.
Brigante, a 45-year-old artist living in the Toronto area, was diagnosed with colorectal cancer about three months prior, in October 2023.
The months that followed illuminated a gap in Ontario’s health care for Brigante – too many young people were being denied early screening for colorectal cancer.
“The more I talked to people, the more I heard, ‘My doctor won’t give me [a colonoscopy]. I’m not old enough. I have to be 50,’” Brigante told CTV News Toronto in an interview last week. “I realized this problem is so much larger than just me and I had to do something actionable.”
While colon cancer rates across all age groups have steadily declined over the last 20 years, Brigante’s effort comes as the disease has seen an unexplained increase in younger Canadians.
