{"id":8218,"date":"2026-04-22T17:51:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T17:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/?p=8218"},"modified":"2026-04-23T04:21:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T04:21:40","slug":"at-31-i-brushed-off-a-common-symptom-that-affects-millions-but-it-was-the-only-warning-sign-of-colon-cancer-soaring-among-young-adults-like-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/?p=8218","title":{"rendered":"At 31, I brushed off a common symptom that affects millions. But it was the only warning sign of colon cancer soaring among young adults like me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">There was a time, not long ago, when Sal Giampapa&#8217;s life was moving exactly as it should.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">There was a summer wedding on the horizon, and a three-year-old daughter underfoot. Another child on the way. A house half-renovated and full of plans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">At 31, Giampapa felt young enough to believe serious illness was something that happened to other people. Older people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He worked long, physical days as a sanitation worker in <a id=\"mol-a5d31c80-3e5e-11f1-b462-cb8f10d2e5a9\" style=\"font-weight: bold;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/news\/new-jersey\/index.html\" target=\"_self\">New Jersey<\/a>, came home to family life, and carried on through the ordinary chaos of young adulthood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">So when he noticed tiny flecks of blood on the toilet paper, he barely paused.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Hemorrhoids seemed the obvious answer \u2013 inconvenient, uncomfortable, forgettable. The bleeding came and went. Life carried on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">For six months, there was always something more urgent to deal with than a symptom that appeared small enough to ignore. Another room to finish. Another shift to work. Another plan to make.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Then came the colonoscopy in October 2024.<\/p>\n<div class=\"artSplitter mol-img-group\">\n<div class=\"mol-img\">\n<div class=\"image-wrap\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-48d1d78ad11a6456\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2026\/04\/20\/17\/107977973-15743215-image-a-18_1776702688327.jpg\" alt=\"Sal Giampapa (pictured above) was just 31 years old when he was diagnosed with stage three colorectal cancer. His only symptom was intermittent blood in his stool\" width=\"634\" height=\"832\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Sal Giampapa (pictured above) was just 31 years old when he was diagnosed with stage three colorectal cancer. His only symptom was intermittent blood in his stool<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><iframe id=\"xp-iframe-moackad1q9xlvb2dqhk\" class=\"iframe-creator \" style=\"border: 0; width: 0; min-width: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/flo.uri.sh\/visualisation\/22830087\/embed\" name=\"xp-iframe-moackad1q9xlvb2dqhk\" height=\"600\">Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"xp-iframe-moacjkhh3f347oe12t5\" class=\"iframe-creator \" style=\"border: 0; width: 0; min-width: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/html_modules\/Annie\/tests\/240905-healthsubheading-finalversion\/index.html\" name=\"xp-iframe-moacjkhh3f347oe12t5\" height=\"45\" scrolling=\"no\" data-xpmodule-iframe-resizable=\"\">Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Doctors told him beforehand it would most likely confirm hemorrhoids. But when he woke from the procedure, his fianc\u00e9e was crying beside the bed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Instead of hemorrhoids, medics had found two five-centimeter masses in his colon \u2013 each roughly the size of a lime. Weeks later, specialists at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York confirmed the diagnosis: stage three bowel cancer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I was in immediate denial,&#8217; Giampapa, now 32, told the Daily Mail. &#8216;You just deny and deny and deny, and then you&#8217;re like, &#8216;No, I actually got cancer at 31. This doesn&#8217;t make sense.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;You think, &#8216;Young people don&#8217;t get cancer, right?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">But increasingly, they do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Across America, colorectal cancer is rising in adults under 50, dismantling the long-held idea that it is mainly a disease of old age.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Cases in older adults have been falling, helped by screening and awareness. Yet among younger people, diagnoses have been climbing steadily year after year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The danger is not only that more young adults are developing the disease, but that many are diagnosed later. Symptoms such as rectal bleeding, abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, cramping or unexplained weight loss are often brushed off as hemorrhoids, stress or irritable bowel syndrome.<\/p>\n<div class=\"artSplitter mol-img-group\">\n<div class=\"mol-img\">\n<div class=\"image-wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-a1f9fd1453c70063\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/04\/22\/16\/107977975-15743215-In_November_2025_Giampapa_and_his_fiancee_welcomed_a_baby_boy_na-m-2_1776870412235.jpg\" alt=\"In November 2025, Giampapa and his fianc\u00e9e welcomed a baby boy named Beau to their growing family. The family is pictured above\" width=\"634\" height=\"618\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">In November 2025, Giampapa and his fianc\u00e9e welcomed a baby boy named Beau to their growing family. The family is pictured above<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">By the time the right tests are done, the cancer may already have spread.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Giampapa had no family history of colorectal cancer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;It was just luck of the draw,&#8217; he said. &#8216;We don&#8217;t really know how or where it came from.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">What followed was a year shaped by hospitals, procedures and the strange rhythm of treatment \u2013 waiting, hoping, enduring, repeating.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">In January 2025, he underwent an endoscopic submucosal dissection, or ESD, a procedure in which doctors use a long, flexible camera tube to remove abnormal tissue from inside the bowel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Several weeks later, in March, he was fitted with a chemotherapy port in his chest. He then underwent a second ESD before beginning the first of six rounds of chemotherapy, each delivered through punishing 48-hour infusions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He tried to keep working throughout treatment. But chemotherapy took its toll.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The exhaustion was so intense he struggled to pick up his three-year-old daughter or cope with the physical demands of his job. A metallic taste clung to his mouth. Cold felt painful, and pins and needles crackled through his hands. The body he had trusted no longer behaved as it once had.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"xp-iframe-moackaefn6kzf501oxk\" class=\"iframe-creator \" style=\"border: 0; width: 0; min-width: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/html_modules\/2025\/07_JUL\/250702_signs_of_bowel_cancer\/index.html\" name=\"xp-iframe-moackaefn6kzf501oxk\" height=\"300\" scrolling=\"no\" data-xpmodule-iframe-resizable=\"\">Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"xp-iframe-moackaej870ibuxzh58\" class=\"iframe-creator \" style=\"border: 0; width: 0; min-width: 100%;\" src=\"https:\/\/flo.uri.sh\/visualisation\/25278536\/embed\" name=\"xp-iframe-moackaej870ibuxzh58\" height=\"600\">Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">After chemotherapy, surgeons removed 10 inches of his colon in July, leaving him temporarily dependent on an ileostomy bag for three months while his body healed. The procedure diverts waste through an opening in the abdomen into an external pouch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Doctors were racing time as much as disease. Giampapa&#8217;s fianc\u00e9e was pregnant with their second child during much of his treatment, and there was urgency to get him through surgery and recovery before the baby arrived.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Then, in August 2025, came the words every cancer patient longs to hear: he was cancer free.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Three months later, in November, their son was born.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;It was very rewarding,&#8217; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">There was more good news to come. In January 2026, a follow-up colonoscopy found no evidence of returning cancer, though doctors removed 22 pre-cancerous polyps. His chemotherapy port was removed the following month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">For the next several years, he will continue living under close surveillance \u2013 two CT scans each year and an annual colonoscopy to watch for recurrence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Because he was diagnosed so young, his children may need screening much earlier than most people, potentially beginning in early adulthood. The illness that blindsided one generation may shape the medical future of the next.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Giampapa has also changed what he can control. Though it is unclear whether diet played any role in his cancer, he has cut back on ultra-processed foods, fatty meals and sugary sodas in a bid to lower the risk of recurrence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">And life, which once seemed to split so suddenly in two, has slowly begun to knit itself back together.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The wedding postponed from summer 2025 is now planned for February 2027. What once felt like a date on the calendar now carries a deeper weight. So do the smaller things: lifting his children, going to work, waking without dread, imagining years instead of appointments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I&#8217;m just looking forward to being a parent, a husband, trying to be healthy and cancer free as long as I can be and be better than yesterday,&#8217; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Now he wants younger adults, especially those who think age protects them, to pay attention to the signs he once ignored.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Blood in the stool. Sudden bowel changes. Persistent stomach cramping. Unexplained weight loss. None of it should be dismissed simply because someone seems too young for cancer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;If you have any sudden bowel changes, stomach cramping, just go get the consultation. At least let the doctor know and go make that appointment,&#8217; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;If I can help at least one person go get looked at, then I love to give back and help out when I can.&#8217;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; There was a time, not long ago, when Sal Giampapa&#8217;s life was moving exactly as it should. There was a summer wedding on the horizon, and a three-year-old daughter underfoot. Another child on the way. A house half-renovated and full of plans. At 31, Giampapa felt young enough to believe serious illness was something<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[987],"tags":[2993,2992,2892,2893,2991,1945,2895,2067,2994,1975],"class_list":{"0":"post-8218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthy-living","8":"tag-cancer-surveillance","9":"tag-chemotherapy-recovery","10":"tag-colorectal-cancer-2026","11":"tag-early-onset-cancer","12":"tag-esd-procedure","13":"tag-gut-microbiome","14":"tag-lynch-syndrome","15":"tag-patient-advocacy","16":"tag-pre-cancerous-polyps","17":"tag-ultra-processed-foods"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8249,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8218\/revisions\/8249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}