She Thought It Was Just Postpartum Aftereffects... Woman in Her 40s Diagnosed with Stage 3 Colon Cancer [Health Talk]

[The Financial News] The story has emerged of an American woman in her 40s who dismissed symptoms that appeared after childbirth as simple postpartum aftereffects, only to be diagnosed with colon cancer several years later.
According to Fox News on the 16th (local time), Marisa Peters, 44, who lives in the State of California, first noticed blood in her stool after giving birth to her first child in the early 2010s. At the time, hospital staff told her, "It’s natural for your body to change after having a baby," and regarded the bleeding as a normal postpartum phenomenon. Because she was relatively young, they did not consider the possibility of colon cancer.
The symptoms were then left untreated for about five years. During that time, Peters had two more children and became a mother of three, but the bleeding and pain repeatedly eased and then worsened. As time went on, the amount of blood increased to the point that the toilet bowl was stained red, and she also developed an urgent need to defecate, along with changes in the shape and size of her stool. She even developed severe anemia, a classic sign of colon cancer, yet neither she nor her doctors suspected the disease.

It was not until 2021, when she began to see blood every single time she had a bowel movement, that she finally visited a gastroenterologist. The test results were shocking. A colonoscopy revealed a tumor about 5 centimeters in size located just above the rectum, and she was ultimately diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. After 11 months of chemotherapy and radiation, the tumor shrank to about half its original size. She then underwent rectal reconstruction surgery and additional chemotherapy, and she has now recovered her bowel function.
Peters said, "If you notice even slightly unusual symptoms, or if you are in a high‐risk group due to family history, you should not put off getting a colonoscopy." In fact, both her parents and her older sister were later found, during screening, to have precancerous polyps, which were removed before they progressed to cancer.

Colon cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide, after lung cancer and breast cancer. It used to occur mainly in people in their 50s and older, but in recent years the incidence among younger adults has been rising steeply. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS) "Colorectal Cancer Statistics 2026," the incidence of colorectal cancer among people aged 20 to 49 is increasing by about 3% each year.
Colon cancer develops through a combination of genetic and environmental factors. A hereditary background, such as familial polyposis, can significantly increase the risk of developing the disease at a young age.

However, an estimated 70% to 90% of colon cancer cases are linked to environmental factors such as diet, obesity, smoking, and alcohol consumption. Diets high in red meat, excessive fat intake, and obesity are considered major risk factors. Obesity is one of the key drivers of colon cancer risk, as increased insulin resistance and hormone changes irritate the intestinal mucosa and raise the likelihood of cancer developing in the colon.
Early-stage colon cancer usually causes no obvious symptoms, so it is easily mistaken for hemorrhoids or irritable bowel syndrome. Typical early signs include blood in the stool, rectal or anal bleeding, discomfort during bowel movements, and a persistent feeling of incomplete evacuation. Hemorrhoids also cause bleeding, which can be confusing, but if bleeding recurs, the shape of the stool changes, or weight loss occurs together with these symptoms, a medical examination is essential.


hsg@fnnews.com Han Seung-gon Reporter