Vanderbilt-Ingram Creates New Registry to Track a Serious, Inherited Form of Colorectal Cancer: First of Its Kind in State
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| Duveen Sturgeon, R.N., registry coordinator and Paul Wise, M.D. look over a pedigree similar to what they will use to track hereditary colon and other cancers |
Despite a healthy lifestyle and youth on her side, 47-year-old Jane Sentner has spent the better part of a decade fighting cancer, thanks to what she calls bad genes.
“I’m unfortunately the ‘winner’ of the gene pool jackpot,” said the now four-time cancer survivor. “All of my aunts and uncles died before they were 60 of stomach or colon cancer.” Her mother had breast and colon cancer and died at 59. Her father had a heart attack that claimed his life at 44.
Sentner has something called Lynch syndrome, or hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC). It’s a rare disorder, but having this inherited syndrome means you have more than an 80 percent chance of developing colorectal cancer and puts you at high risk for developing several other types of cancer. HNPCC causes cancer to grow and spread more quickly than typical colon or other cancers.
Thanks to a new Hereditary Colorectal Cancer Registry created by the colorectal surgery team at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, patients who have this disorder, like Sentner, can be monitored more closely. In addition, the registry will help evaluate other family members who may need to be screened regularly at a younger age than traditional guidelines recommend.
“For some cancers that are preventable, if you know specifically you’ve got a gene that predisposes you to a cancer, then you can prevent it. If one family member tests positive for this mutation, they need to start colonoscopies between 20 to 25 years of age, when it’s preventable,” said Duveen Sturgeon, R.N.
Sturgeon is the program coordinator for the new registry. She said it is the first of its kind for colorectal cancer in the state of Tennessee. “We want to start here at Vanderbilt, but eventually we want to go out into the community and talk to other community physicians. Right now, Tennessee has no hereditary colorectal cancer registry and neither does Southern Kentucky.”
There will be a monthly clinic for patients identified at high-risk for having HNPCC, and a multidisciplinary team will evaluate each case before the clinic visit. Sturgeon will work with the patients to schedule necessary screening tests for colorectal and other related cancers during their visit to Vanderbilt. “We’re hoping for one-stop shopping, so people can come in, have colonoscopies, biopsies, and appointments with all the people that they really need to see,” said Sturgeon.
Sentner said she’s vigilant about checkups given her history and known HNPCC genetic disorder. “It’s been a bummer of a journey, but I feel so lucky to be here and checked so closely. I’m watched so closely that anything is going to be caught very early.”
March is colorectal cancer awareness month, and Sentner said people who are afraid to be screened for the disease should know that the tests are not as bad as they might imagine. “It is so not a big deal. How could one day of your life, a little inconvenience, possibly compete with the confidence of knowing you’ve been checked when they can find it when it is so small,” questioned Sentner.
This year more than 153,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer, with most cases striking after age 50. Vanderbilt-Ingram is reminding patients that the disease is preventable, treatable and beatable. To find out more about screening guidelines for colorectal cancer and the Hereditary Colorectal Cancer Registry at Vanderbilt-Ingram see www.vanderbiltcolorectal.com.
