“My team conducted a few studies, particularly one that wanted to look at the burden of appendix cancers in young adults,” she said. “And what we strikingly found there was that, in contrast to the fact that about 1 in every 5 colorectal cancer patients is diagnosed before the age of 50, we found that 1 in every 3 [30.8%] appendix cancer patients are diagnosed before age 50.4. Noting this really disproportionate burden in younger patients really spurred a lot of the subsequent work that my lab has done and continues to do."