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Colorectal care and screenings are becoming increasingly important at younger ages.
Dr. Steven Wexner, physician executive director and system chief of colorectal surgery at , said a troubling trend is the plummeting age of colorectal cancer patients.
鈥淥ne of the most dramatic changes we鈥檝e seen is the number of younger patients with colorectal cancer,鈥� Wexner explained to WTOP for our 2026 Get on Top of Your Health series.
鈥淲hen I started in practice, it was a rarity to see somebody under age 60 with colorectal cancer. Now it鈥檚 unfortunately quite common to see people in their 50s, in their 40s, even younger, sometimes in the complete absence of a family history.鈥�
Being your own colorectal health advocate
Wexner urges regular screenings and alerting a primary care physician about any noticeable changes in bowel habits, blood in the stool, abdominal pain or unexplained weight loss.
鈥淯nfortunately, these types of symptoms are often ignored in younger people, even by their doctors. Even rectal bleeding is often ascribed to hemorrhoids, and the patient doesn鈥檛 get it investigated,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o, if you鈥檙e the patient, you need to be your own advocate and say something鈥檚 changed, and I want to get it checked out.鈥�
Wexner said he treats patients facing a wide range of colorectal conditions.
鈥淚 happen to consider myself very fortunate to get the patients who are in really kind of dire shape because they鈥檝e had one or more go rounds and are still looking to get better,鈥� he said.
Treating complex colorectal cases
He is also using his 38 years of experience to treat complex cases, including ulcerative colitis, rectal cancer, Crohn鈥檚 disease, prostate cancer-related issues and many others.
鈥淚 tend to take care of a lot of people who鈥檝e had one or often multiple operations that haven鈥檛 gone as ideally desired,鈥� Wexner said.
He said he has treated patients with ulcerative colitis who have had reconstructive surgery but did not heal properly and needed a repair. Wexner said in many of those cases, he鈥檚 been able to help keep patients from having to wear a bag permanently.
鈥淥r a patient with a rectal cancer, which unfortunately didn鈥檛 necessarily result in a cure, and I鈥檓 able to go in with a multidisciplinary approach and hopefully cure that patient,鈥� Wexner said.
Patients with difficult cases of diverticulitis are among those he helps. He said he can also fix communication between the bladder and the rectum in prostate cancer patients.
鈥淚t鈥檚 tremendously gratifying when you take somebody who鈥檚 kind of lost hope or thinks maybe there鈥檚 no hope, and you can restore that hope realistically,鈥� Wexner said.
Prioritizing comfort is also important because many patients might be traumatized from procedures with negative outcomes or have traveled from far away.
鈥淧retend you鈥檙e the patient or the family member, as the case may be, and just do a bit of role reversal. And how would you like somebody to speak to you? How would you like that explanation rendered? And that鈥檚 not anything about a degree. That鈥檚 just about being a good person and helping establish trust and making that patient feel comfortable,鈥� Wexner said.
Ensuring colorectal care keeps pace with latest advances
Staying on top of technological advances is also important.
鈥淎rtificial intelligence has a tremendous opportunity to help improve safety, both prior to surgery as well as during surgery 鈥� in fact, even after surgery, by picking up signals,鈥� he said.
Wexner has also pioneered procedures. He shared one technique involving J-pouches for patients with ulcerative colitis who need to have their colon removed.
鈥淚n 1989 with my late partner, David Jagelman, we modified that technique,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e did what鈥檚 called a double stapling technique, where we deliberately leave a bit of tissue at the end, which is sensory-rich tissue. And without all that extra dissection, the risk of infection plummeted.鈥�
To learn more about colorectal care options, Wexner said patients can begin the process with an evaluation and consultation, including virtual visits if outside the Washington metropolitan area.
鈥淲e have many outstanding surgeons in the department throughout our system,鈥� he said.
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