My Lynch-Cancer Story Began Before I Was Born

By Carol Findley

My Lynch-Cancer Story began even before I was born. A few weeks before my birth my father was diagnosed with colon cancer. While my mother was in one hospital delivering me, my father was in a different hospital recovering from colon surgery. That was 1965 when cancer was usually a death sentence. Chemotherapy was not very prevalent at that time so the only option for my father was harsh cobalt therapy – a precursor to radiation. After a difficult but valiant battle my father lost his life to cancer when I was barely 8 months old. Cancer stole my father from me.

Fast forward 15 years. Cancer struck my family again. First, my uncle (my father’s brother) died from a brain tumor at the age of 35. A few weeks later my brother was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer – adrenocortical. He was only 17 years old; but his optimism in the face of this diagnosis was amazing. Over the next three years he underwent experimental treatments. Chemotherapy was gaining success in the treatment of cancer; but harsh side effects came along with the treatments. My brother was a trooper and never complained. He fought to the end but lost his battle at the young age of 20. Two months after my brother died, my grandma (my father’s mother) also passed away from cancer.

While cancer impacted me personally by the deaths of my father, brother, uncle and grandma, it affected me directly in 1992. At the age of 27, I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer; the same cancer that took my father. Due to the stage of the cancer, my family history and my young age, my doctors were very aggressive in treating my cancer. They chose a newer treatment which included chemotherapy and radiation followed up with surgery a few weeks later. Even though Lynch Syndrome was not “discovered” yet, my oncologist strongly believed that my cancer was due to some type of hereditary disease.

After my diagnosis, cancer continued to strike my family. My step father was diagnosed with colon cancer (which he beat); but a few years later lost his life to lung cancer. My sister was diagnosed with a glioblastoma brain tumor in her mid-40’s. She remains cancer-free but struggles with residual effects from the surgery and radiation treatments.

At the time of my sister’s diagnosis, her doctors referred my sister and me to a genetic specialist. The genetic specialist mapped out several possible genetic conditions; and had me tested for these. The results came back positive for Lynch Syndrome – MSH2 with a possible Turcot Syndrome variant. While I wasn’t due for a colonoscopy for several more years, my GI doctor decided to schedule an earlier colonoscopy and EGD. When I woke up from the procedure my GI doctor informed me that he had found a new colon cancer tumor. My Lynch Syndrome diagnosis probably saved my life. The tumor had been found early. Ten plus years out and I’m cancer-free again. I’ve reached a milestone where over half of my life I’ve been a cancer survivor.

We’ve come a long way from my father’s 1964 cancer diagnosis, or even my 1992 cancer diagnosis; but we still have much more to do before we live in a world free from cancer.