Most of the time, finding a colon in a vacant house would be bad or even horrific news. But not in this case.
On October 20th I wrote for Forbes about someone stealing a 10-foot-long, 150-pound inflatable colon. This wasn't a colon from one of those huge floats in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, but a colon from the Colon Cancer Coalition meant to raise awareness for colon cancer screening as part of a campaign called “Get Your Rear in Gear.” In a University of Kansas Health System press release, John Ashcraft, DO, a surgical oncologist at The University of Kansas Cancer Center explained that “colon cancer is a tough subject for many to talk about and the giant, 150 pound, ten foot long inflatable colon is a great conversation starter.”
You can say that this theft resulted in a massive probe, as many couldn't understand why someone could be such a piece of fecal material to lift an exhibit that was helping people better understand a significant health problem. The American College of Gastroenterology offered a $1,000 donation for tips to help find the stolen colon:
⭐ REWARD for #StolenColon ⭐
The College will donate *$1,000* to charity for any tips leading to the location and recovery of the stolen inflatable #colon. The $ will be divided between @GYRIG @FightCRC @CCAlliance @NCCRTnews
Read the @Forbes story ➡️ https://t.co/3JkXF8D8mr pic.twitter.com/LEPVovA0rf
— ACG (@AmCollegeGastro) October 24, 2018
Others such as Quest Diagnostics Health & Wellness and employees of Salix Pharmaceuticals also offered money to help purchase a replacement. Author and journalist Katie Couric Tweeted this, which was also a lot of pun:
Someone stole a 10 ft long, 150 lb inflatable colon from the University of Kansas Cancer Center. Does anyone know the scope of the crime? Hopefully, there's no obstruction of justice. We need to flush out what happened here and get to the BOTTOM of it. https://t.co/1bPB1hynxr pic.twitter.com/tazoJx4Nsf
— Katie Couric (@katiecouric) October 24, 2018
But in the end, Kansas City police found the colon in a vacant house in Kansas City, Missouri, as they indicated in the following Tweet:
BREAKING: WE HAVE RECOVERED THE STOLEN COLON. Thanks to a tip, officers found the giant, inflatable, pilfered intestine in a vacant house in the 7100 block of Virginia. No one in custody yet. Investigation is continuing. #stolencolon pic.twitter.com/QAILIr3G6d
— Kansas City Police (@kcpolice) October 29, 2018
No word on whether the house in the 7100 block of Virginia Street was a dump. Also, no comment from the colon itself. But the colon is scheduled to make an appearance today, October 30, in the atrium at The University of Kansas Cancer Center, where it will be back trying to raise awareness about a potentially deadly disease that can be successfully treated if detected early enough.
“One in 20 people will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer,” said Stacie Moody, local Get Your Rear in Gear director, in the press release. “Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. and 60 percent of colorectal cancer deaths could be prevented with colonoscopy screening. Now we have three inflatable colons to help teach about the dangers of colon cancer and benefits of colon screenings.”
The backstory is that this incident may have raised more needed awareness about colon cancer and colon cancer prevention and screening. For example, how many people realize that the American Cancer Society recently changed its recommendation regarding colorectal cancer screening for people who are at average risk. Screening should now begin earlier at age 45 rather than previous recommendation, age 50.
Want to get to the bottom of why this change in recommendations happened? Look at a study published in an August 201y issue of the JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute. A team from the American Cancer Society (Rebecca L. Siegel, Stacey A. Fedewa, William F. Anderson, Kimberly D. Miller, Jiemin Ma, Philip S. Rosenberg, and Ahmedin Jemal) analyzed data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program. They found that since the the mid-1980s, colon cancer incidence among 20 to 39 year olds has been increasing by 1.0% to 2.4% each year. Among those 40 to 54 years old, the incidence has been increasing by 0.5% to 1.3% each year since the mid-1990s. Something has been going on to cause this change, whether it has been changing diets, more carcinogens in food or the environment, the obesity epidemic (some evidence suggests a link between obesity and colorectal cancer), decreasing physical activity, other causes, or some combination of all of these.
So the story of what's happening with colorectal cancer deserves a colon and not a period. There is still much to be done about awareness and understanding what is going on with colorectal cancer incidence and what can be done. Recovering the giant, 150 pound, ten foot long inflatable colon is a start.
