Stage 4 Colon Cancer Survivor Shares Treatment Experience

Navy veteran Jason Randall was 35 and married with two children and a baby on the way when he went to the doctor to check on severe abdominal cramping and an inability to move his bowels. The diagnosis: Stage 4 colorectal cancer with tumors covering 80% of his liver. His Kansas doctors offered chemotherapy but said the tumors were inoperable – even after they had shrunk by more than 40%. Randall discovered an online community of colorectal cancer patients, survivors and care partners. He crowdsourced, asking for recommendations on where he should go for a second opinion. The suggestion that stuck: Dr. Yuman Fong and City of Hope. With more than 30 years’ of operating room experience, Fong says that while doctors once viewed cancer in the liver as inoperable, now with treatment and surgical advances, some 35% of people with tumors in the liver can be cured. Randall underwent a 12-hour surgery with two surgeons – one specializing in liver cancer and the other in colorectal cancer. Randall is now permanently attached to a colostomy bag to hold his waste, but he doesn’t mind because he has gone about three years without chemotherapy and has no evidence of disease. Randall is grateful to the online community that pointed him in the right direction. To give back, he shares his patient story and provides support in online cancer communities such as Colontown and Man Up to Cancer.

To view Jason Randall’s full story, visit: https://www.cityofhope.org/stage-4-colon-cancer-survivor-shares-treatment-experience