Today
At the end of 2015, Marisa Peters, then 33, noticed blood on the toilet paper after going to the bathroom. Concerned, she went to the doctor, who ruled out her concerns as changes that can occur after having a baby.
“In his words, not in mine, I looked like a young and energetic mother who perhaps had different expectations about the physical and emotional consequences of having a child,” Peters said, now 43 years old and resident in Los Angeles, to Today.com. “Some of my doctors attributed to childbirth, which finally delayed my diagnosis.”
During the next five years, the symptoms continued and doctors assured Peters that he was fine. He had two more children before finally undergoing colonoscopy and being diagnosed with rectal cancer in stage 3.
“My life turned a turn overnight, as happens to anyone who receives such a shocking news,” he said. “Cancer was the last thing I thought.”
Symptoms
At first, Peters noticed blood on the toilet paper. Over the years, the symptoms became more worrying.
“It went from being a little blood in the feces to fill the toilet with blood,” he said. “In the end, it seemed that I had the rule for the amount of blood that came out.”
The texture of their feces changed and they had a “hairy” and smaller appearance.
“(The fecal matter) tried to go through a place where there was a 5 centimeter tumor to get out of my body,” he explained. “I had an urgent need to go to the bathroom, I felt as if I were defining on.” Due to the great blood loss, Peters developed anemia and felt an “insatiable need to chew ice.” During this five -year period in which their symptoms intensified, two other children also gave birth. After the “complicated” childbirth of his third son, in which he lost blood quickly, he finally went to a gastroenterologist to prescribe a medication that he expected to help him control his gastrointestinal symptoms.
“I went to see the doctor and, when I told her my symptoms, I will never forget her face. I was shocked and worried,” Peters recalled.
The doctor asked him if he wanted to get a colonoscopy and, at first, she showed a reluctant. At that time, I did not know that colorectal cancer rates in young people were increasing. The doctor agreed to jump the colonoscopy at the moment if Peters underwent other types of tests. If the results indicated that a colonoscopy was necessary, Peters agreed to return.
“We did a colloguard test. We did other laboratory tests,” he said. “Indeed, The colloguard test tested“
Peters needed a colonoscopy.
“They made me the colonoscopy, which revealed the tumor,” he said. “The biopsy results arrived very fast, in less than 48 hours. It was a Wednesday when they called me to tell me that it was cancerous.”
The tumor size indicated that it was in an advanced phase, but the doctors were not sure if it had spread to other parts of the body or if it had invaded the rectal wall. Shortly after undergoing the tests, Peters knew he had rectum cancer at stage 3 at the beginning of the summer of 2021.
“The tumor was right at the top of the rectum, that’s why I felt so much urgency to go to the bathroom,” he explained.
Its treatment plan included six chemotherapy cycles followed by 28 radiotherapy cycles with oral chemotherapy every working day for five and a half weeks. After the treatment, he underwent a seven -hour surgery in which the doctors removed the dough and rebuilt the rectum. To recover, he had an ileostomy (surgery in which an abdomen opening is created so that the waste can leave the body through the small intestine) for four months. Finally, it underwent six more chemotherapy cycles before undergoing surgery to reverse ileostomy.
“That’s when I felt that the real battle beganbecause you realize what has happened in your life, “he said.” Fortunately, miraculously, I responded completely to treatment. “
Colorectal cancer in young people
In the last 30 years, the number of colorectal cancer cases in young people has constantly increased.
“It is undoubtedly increasing in young people,” Dr. David Rosen, Colorectal Surgeon of the Center for Colorectal Cancer of early onset, which did not treat Peters told 2025. “It continues to increase in young people, even in children under 45,”
The Colorectal cancer signs may include:
- Stools with blood
- Rectal bleeding
- Changes in intestinal habits
- Pain or pressure on the rectum
- Fatigue
- Changes in the consistency of feces, such as narrow or soft feces
- Unexpected weight loss
- Abdominal cramps
Treatments for rectal cancer may include chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery.
“I will never stop talking about this”
After his diagnosis and the completion of his treatment, Peters founded a non -profit organization called Be Seen.
“Our mission is to eradicate death by colorectal cancer of early appearance through three pillars. (One) focused on awareness and education. Once again, that would have made a fundamental difference if I had known it,” he said. “The second focuses on access and research (… | And, finally, it is not enough for people to know that tests exist, you have to go to action. Colonoscopies or stool hidden blood tests must be done.”
After his own experience, Peters believes thats important to share information about colorectal cancer.
“I’m never going to stop talking about this,” he said. “If I can help to humanize and make all this sharing my own story, as improper or unwilling, I will never stop sharing it.”
