- Katie Couric began losing her first husband, Jay Monahan, to colon cancer.
- The previous Today host encourages others to get early examinations after Monahan developed stage 4 cancer at 41.
- Couric founded Stand Up To Cancer in 2008, an organization that raises money and raises awareness for cancer research.
March is the month for colorectal cancer awareness, but that’s just one reason Katie Couric encourages people to take advantage of early detection investigations. In a new interview with Today, the journalist and founder of Katie Couric Media said she started pleading for performances after her first husband Jay Monahan died in 1998 of colon cancer.
‘The bottom line is that early research saves lives. “Early detection saves lives,” said Couric. Monohan was 41 when he developed stage 4 colon cancer and died just one year later. Couric previously told HealthDay that Monohan, after being doubled with pain in his abdomen, heard that his colon was “completely blocked” by a tumor.
“Jay never really had symptoms of colon cancer, except that he was tired all the time, which grew us into a busy lifestyle, had young children, and his coast-to-coast travels, which NBC legal analyzes, she said.
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The American Cancer Society (ACS) says that colorectal cancer often does not cause symptoms until it has grown or spread, which is why it is so important to be screened. The ACS recommends screening since 2018 for those aged 45 and over, and in October 2020, draft guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force also recommended that screening begin at age 45.
“Screening would not have occurred to Jay when he was diagnosed at 41,” Couric said. “My hope is that we find a way to do a wider investigation and that we can save even more lives, but until then, people need to pay attention.”
A study conducted in the BMJ found that taking a colonoscopy – an examination that uses a long, flexible tube to examine abnormalities in the colon – is associated with a 67% reduction in the risk of colorectal cancer death.
Colon cancer rates among adults under 50 have risen since the mid-80s, the ACS says, and younger age groups have seen the sharpest increases. In fact, one study from 2017 found that people younger than 55 years were 58% more likely to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer in the late stages than older people. This is ‘mainly due to the delayed follow-up of symptoms, sometimes for years, because cancer is usually not on the radar of young adults or their providers’, the authors wrote.
Couric underwent a colonoscopy on the air during a Today show segment in 2000 when she was 43. She also got “his and hers” colonoscopies in 2019 with her husband John Molner, where she revealed on Instagram that her doctors removed two polyps during the procedure. (A polyp is a growth in the colon that can sometimes lead to cancer, says the ACS.)
“It has the potential to develop into cancer, which is why screening is so IMPORTANT!” Couric wrote in an Instagram caption. “Yes, the preparation is not so nice, but it is MUCH better than being diagnosed with colon cancer!”
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Couric also stressed that more research is needed to explain why black adults are 20% more likely to get colorectal cancer and that about 40% more die from it than other groups.
“We need to diversify our (clinical trial) patients,” she said. ‘We need to study why coloreds, especially black people, have much higher incidences of rectal cancer. … We are making a very concerted effort to just broaden ourselves and to ensure that populations among people or people who do not have access to medical care are screened for colon cancer and that they are included in all cancer research. ‘
She also added that she was “very concerned” that people might miss performances due to the pandemic. “We really have to catch up on lost time,” Couric said. “If we’re out of this pandemic, you need to talk to your doctor, you need to make an appointment.”
Although Couric lost her husband two decades ago, she continues to honor him by spreading awareness about colon cancer. “You live on in your girls and in our hearts,” she wrote in an Instagram post from January 2020. “We love you and miss you every day.”
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