28-03-2025
Genetic testing IDs some at higher risk for colorectal cancer
DUPAGE COUNTY, Ill. (WGN) — It's a quiet day in Wheaton, and Jessica Wozniak is in her kitchen, making a cup of tea.
The mother of a preschooler is taking advantage of some time to relax, read, and rest. The 36-year-old needs to save the strength she has for what's coming the next day: chemotherapy at Duly Health's cancer infusion center in Hinsdale.
'Chemo's miserable,' she said. 'It's really, really not fun.'
With her husband Patrick by her side, she's undergoing her eighth cycle of chemotherapy. Her hands and feet are covered in 'cold gloves and socks' to reduce two of chemo's most uncomfortable side-effects: cold sensitivity and neuropathy.
Her health ordeal started about one year ago when she came down with norovirus, an intense flu-like sickness that usually passes through the body within about 48-hours. But her abdominal pain lingered much longer.
'About a month after that, I was still having intermittent symptoms stomach pain,' Wozniak said. 'Diarrhea. Something was unsettled. But it seemed like I couldn't have a virus for that long.'
At first, doctors suspected that she had developed an ovarian cyst. 'I still was just feeling – in the morning – a cramping pain,' she said. 'Doubling over. I thought this was just not normal. So, I went to my primary care doctor, and she said this doesn't sound like it's only a cyst, let's send you for a CT. Sure enough, they saw some inflammation in my colon.'
Doctors ordered a colonoscopy and found she had two masses in her colon.
It was cancer.
'I realized right away that everything was going to be different, especially when I had another CT that showed some lesions on my liver, and again I was told, 'oh these could just be fluid filled cysts, nothing,'' she said. 'But it was this kind of intuition that this is not good, and sure enough those came back as cancerous, too.'
The cancer had advanced to stage four, meaning it had spread to other organs. 'Everything you hear about stage 4, you think this is not, this is going to be terminal for me, what am I going to do, I'm 35, I have a three-year-old, so it was pretty devastating and dark for those first few months,' she said.
According to the American Cancer Society, colorectal cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men younger than 50, and the number two cause of cancer death among women under 50.
'There were a lot of moments where I just cried,' Wozniak said. 'I sat there crying and thinking, 'why is this happening to me?''
Wozniak is one of nearly 20,000 people younger than 50 who were diagnosed with colorectal cancer last year – a dramatic increase and a medical mystery.
'A lot of the media about it is in terms of, like, the environment, what people are eating, lifestyle choices and whatnot,' said Patrick Woulfe, Wozniak's husband. 'I think in Jessica's case that's not necessarily true because hers is due to a genetic condition.'
In Wozniak's case, the cause is clear. She has Lynch Syndrome, an inherited genetic condition associated with an increased risk for colon cancer.
'When I received the genetic test results that almost gave me some piece of mind because I thought, I was blaming myself a lot,' she said. 'Did I eat something that wasn't right? Did I do something to my body? What caused this? The genetic tests made me feel like, in a way, this was inevitable.'
Outside of genetic testing, colorectal cancers can be detected with colonoscopies.
In 2021 the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force lowered the recommended age of screenings from 50 to 45. It's still not young enough to catch many of the new cases.
'I would have rather had a million colonoscopies than deal with this,' Wozniak said. 'A colonoscopy is nothing compared to going through colon cancer.'
Wozniak is sifting through a pile of medical bills, and insurance information, wearing bracelets with the words 'fearless,' 'tough kid,' and her daughter's name. She said she wants to tell her story for her daughter and for everyone else who may have a chance to get screened before they get sick.
'I wish I would have known much sooner, so I could have been screened sooner and caught this sooner,' she said.
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