Med student from Clarkston is working to raise cancer awareness
Mar. 22—Clarkston-raised medical student Pierce Claassen is hoping to raise awareness for colorectal cancer screening in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley before he leaves the region to continue his medical education.
March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Colorectal cancer is the third-most common type of cancer in both men and women, but is also one of the most preventable types of cancer, according to the American College of Gastroenterology.
A fourth-year medical student at the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University, Claassen said he developed a passion for gastroenterology and hepatology during a summer study program between his sophomore and junior years at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
"I worked on a couple of different translational medicine projects, where we were looking at different gastrointestinal conditions in the laboratory setting and relating them back to human subjects," he said. "That was really an area that was quite intriguing to me."
After graduation in May, Claassen will continue his medical education at an internal medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix.
"That has always been my goal and my passion since I was introduced to that field in 2018," Claassen said.
Recently, Claassen presented data on colorectal cancer data specific to Asotin County.
The county's age-adjusted five-year colorectal cancer incidence per 100,000 is lower than the Washington average, Claassen said, with the incidence rate consistently decreasing between 2010 and 2020.
"We're actually doing a fairly good job with employing screening modalities early and often," Claassen said.
But the county has seen an increase in the five-year colon, rectal, and anal cancer mortality rates.
The most likely explanation for that, he said, is that more of those cancers are being detected at later stages, and in people who are younger and not usually screened.
"There are certain people, perhaps those with underlying genetic conditions, that have other unique risk factors to developing colorectal cancer," Claassen said.
In 2020, the American College of Gastroenterology reduced the recommended age to begin colorectal cancer screenings to age 45 for people at average risk.
Several types of screening methods exist, Claassen said, including flexible sigmoidoscopy, imaging tests and stool-based tests. But the gold standard is a colonoscopy.
"It's a very effective procedure in the sense that you can both diagnose and treat early stages of cancer and prevent cancers from occurring before they even have the chance to develop over the course of years or decades," Claassen said.
People should also be aware of potential symptoms of colorectal cancer, Claassen said. They can include unusual abdominal pain, changes in stool caliber (how thick or thin the stool is), and changes in stool habits, such as a person waking up in the middle of the night for a bowel movement.
Having bright red blood in the stool, or black, tar-like stools also may indicate the need to see a doctor for a colorectal cancer screening.
Patients should also identify their individual risks. People with close family members with colorectal cancer, and those with underlying gastrointestinal conditions like inflammatory bowel disease are at a higher risk of developing colorectal cancer. Those individuals may need to be tested earlier.
Sun may be contacted at rsun@lmtribune.com or on Twitter at @Rachel_M_Sun. This report is made in partnership with Northwest Public Broadcasting, the Lewiston Tribune and the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.
