Christopher Burge had been trying to be a contestant on Jeopardy! for 15 years when he, at long last, got the call to appear on the game show’s Nov. 19 episode. The timing wasn’t ideal, however: The 34-year-old Texas high school teacher is in the middle of treatment for stage IV colorectal cancer.
“I finally got picked, so I was going to take the chance” to compete, Burge tells Yahoo Life of the experience. In fact, he decided to use the opportunity to raise awareness about colorectal cancer and its rising rates among young adults like himself. “I’ve been fighting stage IV colon cancer since May,” Burge told Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings. Noting the increase in people under 50 being diagnosed with the disease, he urged others not to ignore symptoms and get screened. “Definitely push to get tested, especially if you have any family history of it,” he said on air.
Burge ended up coming in second. While he hasn’t had much brain fog from his ongoing chemotherapy treatments, he can’t help but wonder: “Would it have been different if I didn’t have cancer?”
Here’s what to know about Burge’s cancer journey and the colon cancer signs he wants everyone to be aware of.
Burge’s journey from diagnosis to treatment
Burge saw his primary care physician in 2021 for acid reflux and a rare form of breathing spasms while sleeping (called laryngospasm). His test results revealed only low blood-iron levels, so he was prescribed iron pills for anemia, though they didn’t help. (According to the American Cancer Society, a blood test showing a low red blood cell count is sometimes the first sign of colorectal cancer.) Burge eventually found a gastroenterologist who did an endoscopy in August 2023. The endoscopy was normal, and for seven months, his symptoms abated. He was still anemic, however.
In March 2024, “intense side pain” landed him in the emergency room. Burge was told that the cause was probably gallstones but that they weren’t “emergent,” he recalls. Even so, the combination of his severe pain and 14 months of ongoing anemia prompted doctors to order a colonoscopy.
The colonoscopy was abnormal and, on May 9, Burge was diagnosed with colon cancer. On May 22, he found out that the cancer had spread to his liver. That made it stage IV. “We caught it just in time before it went beyond the liver, so I’m fortunate on that side,” Burge says. He pauses. “Of course, I’d rather not have cancer.”
He’s completed his first bout of chemo and surgery to remove the cancerous lesions from his liver. Burge is now undergoing a second, more targeted form of chemotherapy that aims to eliminate any remaining cancer cells from his liver. After three months of treatment, he’ll have a second surgery to remove any remaining cancer from his colon. “And then, hopefully, I’m cancer-free,” he says.
It’s becoming more common for young adults to have colorectal cancer — and to find out at later stages
As an avid reader, Burge — who teaches high school government and economics — was aware of colorectal cancer and how rates of the disease have risen among people his age in recent years. Even though a blood cancer specialist he saw about his anemia told him he would likely be “sicker” if he had cancer, Burge knew the disease was a possibility, given his symptoms. “So it wasn’t like I was completely blindsided, but it wasn’t what I expected and it was still a lot to take in.”
Colorectal cancer is still rare in people under 50, affecting fewer than 1% of younger adults. But the odds of being diagnosed with the disease in earlier adulthood have risen exponentially with successive generations. “Individuals born around 1990” — like Burge — “have approximately 2 to 4 times the risk of developing colorectal cancer compared to those born around 1950,” Dr. Anne Mongiu, a colorectal surgeon at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital, tells Yahoo Life.
Like Burge, most younger patients are diagnosed with stage III or IV colorectal cancer, meaning the disease is more advanced and has spread to the lymph nodes or other organs. This may be because “younger people tend to ignore symptoms longer, not report their symptoms or attribute them to other things, and they’re often ignored by physicians,” Dr. Nicholas DeVito, a Duke Health medical oncologist who treats gastrointestinal cancers, tells Yahoo Life
DeVito says he’s seen multiple patients with stage IV colorectal cancer who have told their primary care physicians about symptoms like bloody stool and abdominal pain “for a while.” But many of these providers think, “‘Folks under 45 just don’t get colon cancer or stomach cancer,’” he says. “And that’s very much not true, and that’s why raising awareness of it is so critically important.”
That rings true for Burge. “It’s tough, because physicians don’t assume you have cancer when you’re 34,” he says. His primary care physician took his symptoms seriously, but still, “the one thing I’m always going to wonder is, should someone have suggested a colonoscopy sooner?”
Screening starts earlier now. But is it early enough?
Between 2000 and 2016, the rate of colorectal cancers diagnosed in people between ages 40 and 49 shot up by nearly 15%. That figure continues to rise by 1% to 2% each year. “This alarming trend has prompted a change in screening guidelines.” The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force now recommends people start getting regular colonoscopies at age 45, rather than 50, explains Mongiu.
But many, including Burge, are getting the disease even earlier. That means by the time a colonoscopy detects cancer, it’s more likely to have spread. “I don’t believe that it’s necessarily because their disease is that much more aggressive but, oftentimes, physicians don’t think of [cancer] as a first choice” to explain their symptoms, says Mongiu. “It’s a false bias that we’re seeing more [young] patients with advanced disease, when screening starts at age 45.” Burge had no family history of colorectal cancer that he was aware of. Without that, it’s rare for insurers to cover the full cost of a colonoscopy for someone his age.
Though he credits his doctor for listening to him, Burge now recognizes that if he was old enough to qualify for screening or if signs of cancer weren’t attributed to his body size, he might have been able to start treatment earlier. Before his diagnosis, “I even had a CT scan, but they thought the tumors in my liver were fatty deposits,” Burge says. “I’m overweight, that’s probably why,” he adds.
Obesity can cause fatty liver disease, but a high BMI is also a risk factor for colorectal cancer. “I know it’s standard practice and that no one is doing anything wrong,” says Burge, but it raises questions for him about whether those standard practices are the right ones: “That’s another thing I’d like to advocate for: At what point do we need to bring the screening age to be covered [by insurance] down to 30 or 35?”
Colorectal cancer symptoms to watch for
When colorectal cancer is caught in stage I or II, the five-year survival rate is around 90%. That figure drops off significantly at later stages. However, experts note that late-stage survival estimates are largely based on data from older adults, who make up the vast majority of colorectal cancer patients. That makes it hard to predict how a younger adult will fare against colorectal cancer. Noticing symptoms as early as possible and seeking medical attention are key to diagnosing colorectal cancer early, which improves the odds of successful treatment.
Symptoms to watch for include:
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A change in your bowel movements
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Blood in your stool or black or tarry stool (which may indicate cancer higher up in the colon and is more common among women, according to Mongiu)
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Abdominal pain, aches or cramps
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Diarrhea or constipation, or the feeling that your bowel is still full after going to the bathroom
When it comes to these symptoms, DeVito and Mongiu point out that any new changes that persist or get worse over time are concerning. A one-off issue is not necessarily a sign of anything serious, however. If you think you’re noticing changes in your bowel movements, DeVito suggests keeping a detailed journal so you can share clear information with your health care provider. And if your doctor doesn’t listen to you, “maybe it’s time to find a new provider,” DeVito advises.
When asked if there is anything in a standard primary care exam or blood work that could help detect possible colorectal cancer before a colonoscopy is ordered, Mongiu mentions testing for anemia, which is part of a standard complete blood count (CBC) panel. “We know that tumors do bleed, and they may bleed silently … so if an otherwise young, healthy 20-year-old is anemic, that’s usually a flag that they should start looking for the source of that anemia,” says Mongiu.
Anemia can have several causes, including menstruation for women and nutritional deficiencies. But if these causes are ruled out, it’s a sign worth paying attention to, says Mongiu. And don’t back down until you get a clear answer, says Burge. “Advocate for yourself, ask for explanations,” he urges, “and if they think it’s something simple and progress isn’t made and that doesn’t add up to you, then push. Because a lot of times there are things they can do that aren’t the first-line, standard procedure and that could end up saving your life.”
Burge adds: “The earlier you can get [diagnosed], the better they can treat you and the better the prognosis is going to be.”
