“Today” co-host Craig Melvin has been doing his part in spreading important health messages for years. The NBC newscaster just returned to work in the company’s New York City office after going on a voluntary quarantine for nearly two weeks “out of an abundance of caution,” when a “Today” staffer tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19). Just before his brief quarantine, the newscaster sat down with SurvivorNet to discuss another health issue that’s highly personal to him — colon cancer awareness and prevention.
RELATED: Colon Cancer is on the Rise in Adults Under Age 50
Read More Melvin’s brother Lawrence is a colon cancer survivor, and he says that after the diagnosis — which came as quite a shock when Lawrence was only 39 and very healthy otherwise — they found out they had a pretty extensive family history of the disease. “One of the things that we found out after my brother was diagnosed is that there was, in fact, a family history of colorectal cancer. It didn’t come up until we started asking questions,” Melvin says. “One of the things we’ve found over the last few years is that’s the case in a lot of families. People don’t like talking about their colons or their rectums or blood in their stool. These aren’t conversations that families have.” “When you start to have conversations like that with family members and family history becomes apparent … then that leads to other conversations with primary care physicians. If one person does it and goes to their primary care physician, who then refers them to someone and they get a colonoscopy and they find something, we may have saved one life,” he adds.
RELATED VIDEO: Colon Cancer Rates Are Increasing in People Under 50
Colorectal cancer surgeon Dr. Heather Yeo shares some insight about the rate of colon cancer being diagnosed in younger adults, and how the cancers behave differently.
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