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MEET NATIA

Natia P., Family

New York, NY

NATIA'S STORY

Lynch syndrome, often called hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer, runs in the genes from my mother’s side. It predisposes us to up to eight different types of cancers in varying degrees, the first of which is colon cancer. It also increases the risk for uterine cancer, renal cancer, ovarian cancer, brain cancer and more. In my family, as I later discovered, there have been many cases of colon cancer and uterine cancer, as well as some cases of renal cancer and even one brain cancer diagnosis. While I did not know about the genetic disorder until 2011, I always suspected that there was something wrong since so many maternal relatives were dying of cancer. But, because of its variance in types of cancers, it was hard to classify as a genetic disorder.

My relatives sometimes blamed it on the bad soil or dirty water. Sometimes they did not even reveal their diagnosis. In my sister's case, her symptoms looked similar to pneumonia. Imaging was needed to diagnose her. It was determined she had stage IV cancer and would die in a month. She slipped away from us in exactly two months. She had minimal symptoms. No blood in the stool, no pain; just low fevers, weakness and weight loss that resulted from colon cancer having progressed in her liver.

Perhaps that was also the story of my mother, grandmother, other relatives and thousands of others affected by Lynch syndrome. It is important to find a cure for Lynch syndrome and other genetic cancers, and it is everyone’s duty to support it. It can enter anyone’s family through external relations, friendship, marriage and so on. When that happens, it turns one’s life upside-down.

It is an unbearable pain to watch your loved one die and be unable to help. When I read and hear about the progress in finding a cancer cure, I wonder how so many general physicians, gastroenterologists, and gynecologists do not know and cannot advise their patients about genetic cancer. Before my sister’s death, I had often consulted with my doctors about my family’s cancer history but none of them seemed to know about Lynch syndrome. If my doctors had given me the slightest hint about genetic cancers other than BRCA, my sister would most likely be alive today, maybe without a colon, but alive.

For more information about Lynch Syndrome please visit the websites:

http://www.lynchcancers.com

NATIA'S ADVICE

Higher and better education, public involvement and awareness.