MSK’s Center for Young Onset Colorectal and Gastrointestinal Cancer is the first clinic of its kind in the world dedicated solely to the specific needs of patients under 50. This is the story of one of those patients, Rebecca Genter Lerner, a 32-year-old diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer just weeks before her wedding day.
Show transcript
REBECCA GENTER LERNER
January 2021 was the happiest time.
Ian and I were planning our wedding; we were starting our lives together. And then the world came crashing down.
I was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer.
DR. ANDREA CERCEK
Typically, we see colorectal cancer affecting individuals in their 60s and 70s. But more recently, over the last several decades, there’s been a steady rise in patients under the age of 50.
And why this is happening is still unknown.
REBECCA GENTER LERNER
I was a marathon runner. I was a healthy eater. I didn’t smoke; I barely drank.
DR. ROBIN MENDELSOHN
There are issues that really affect those under 50 that were not being addressed.
So Memorial Sloan Kettering established the Center for Young Onset Colorectal and Gastrointestinal Cancers.
DR. ANDREA CERCEK
Good to see you. How’s everything?
The focus of the center really is to pay attention to the patient as a whole.
REBECCA GENTER LERNER
From the first point of contact with the Young Onset Center, I felt so incredibly taken care of.
DR. ANDREA CERCEK
Your labs look perfect.
REBECCA GENTER LERNER
It felt like I was the only patient they were caring for.
DR. ROBIN MENDELSOHN
All our patients get a social work consult. We offer them nutrition, integrative medicine, psychology/psychiatry consult so that they get the whole spectrum of care.
DR. ANDREA CERCEK
Many of these patients are looking to start families, so fertility preservation is critical.
REBECCA GENTER LERNER
I was diagnosed at 32. The later I went to start a family, the harder it might be.
ANNE CASSON
I’m one of the fertility clinicians at MSK.
REBECCA GENTER LERNER
So that was an immediate conversation that my team at MSK brought up with me.
HADLEY MAYA
As the center’s dedicated clinical social worker, my relationship with patients begins right at the onset of their care.
REBECCA GENTER LERNER
February 4th was my surgery.
HADLEY MAYA
What is most important to me is that patients have a safe space to process what they’re going through.
REBECCA GENTER LERNER
Hadley helped me navigate some really complex conversations that I didn’t know how to handle.
DR. KARUNA GANESH
You can see every cell in this organoid.
DR. ANDREA CERCEK
Another really important aim of our center is to get to the bottom of this question as to why this is happening and to really focus on the research, who are the people at risk, and how we can better screen them and prevent this cancer from occurring at such a young age.
REBECCA GENTER LERNER
I think one of the most special things about the experience with the Young Onset Center is the relationships that I made with all of the people on the team. They’ve become like family over the last year.