
The KIND Revolution
You Are Not Too Young for This — A Surgeon on the Cancer That Moved Into Your Thirties
Colorectal cancer used to be an older person's disease. It is not anymore. Dr. Nanos sits down with Sonia Ramamoorthy, MD, FACS, FASCRS, Chief of the Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery at UC San Diego and the 2024-2025 president of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, where she is the fourth woman and the first Asian woman to hold the office in 125 years. Here is the shift, in her own practice. 24 years ago, nearly every colorectal cancer patient she operated on was in their 60s, 70s, or 80s. Today they are in their 30s and 40s. Incidence is now climbing about 3% a year in adults aged 20 to 49, and about 14% of new US cases are in people under 50. They get into why it keeps getting caught late, and the answer is uncomfortable. The early symptoms are rectal bleeding and a change in bowel habits, which are also the symptoms of hemorrhoids and of nothing at all. So the patient waits. The majority of young patients later diagnosed with this waited three to twelve months before seeing anyone, and most of them delayed because they did not recognize the symptoms as serious. Then, sometimes, the clinician waits too. Dr. Ramamoorthy's answer is not a scary campaign. It is one instruction, pointed in both directions: if the treatment does not fix it, circle back with your doctor, and doctors, circle back with your patient. Also: why screening now starts at 45, why this is one of the few genuinely preventable cancers, what the exercise and microbiome research actually supports, and the colonoscopy discussed honestly by two physicians who have each had one. This is The Kind Revolution — where we bridge science, compassion, and courage. Hosted by Dr. Georgine Nanos, MD, MPH | Kind Health Group, Encinitas, CA Guest: Sonia Ramamoorthy, MD, FACS, FASCRS | UC San Diego Health For education, not medical advice.

