SOUTH LYON, Mich. – When Rajeev Joshi of South Lyon turned 50, his primary care doctor recommended he get a routine colonoscopy.
“I’m like, ‘Eh, just a hassle.’ You gotta, you know, do the bowel prep. You gotta take the day off. I’ve never been under anesthesia, so you gotta do that,” said Joshi.
When the next year came around, he put it off again.
Joshi said he wasn’t opposed to getting a colonoscopy; he just didn’t think it was a priority.
“I thought I was kind of low risk. I had no history of colon cancer. I wasn’t overweight, I was a vegetarian,” said Joshi.
He also didn’t have any symptoms. But when Joshi put the test off for a third time, his doctor suggested he do an at-home Cologuard test.
Joshi was on vacation in Europe with his family when the results came back. It was positive.
“When we came back, of course, the next step is to do a colonoscopy.
Had a big tumor in the transverse colon, several polyps, CT scans, and others found some microstatic disease in the lymph nodes, in my collarbone, neck, and on the liver, so it was diagnosed as a stage four colon cancer.
Rajeev Joshi
It was not the first time Joshi had heard those words. In 2009, his first wife, Anjali, was diagnosed with stage IV stomach cancer.
“It was a shock. She didn’t have any history, nor was at high risk. She did have symptoms early on,” said Joshi. “Unfortunately, she passed away a few years later. So my kids were nine and 12 then.”
Joshi is an engineer. As he had with his wife’s illness, he threw himself into learning everything he could about his cancer and care.
“I’m not the person who’s going to go, ‘Oh my God, what is this?’ Matter of fact, it’s there, it’s there.
You figure out what to do,” said Joshi. As an engineer, I just went into, ‘Okay, kind of diagnosis, problem-solving, right? Analytics. What do we need to do?’”
Rajeev Joshi
Dr. Harry Wasvary is Joshi’s doctor and the Chief of Colorectal Surgery at Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital in Royal Oak.
“His was a very incredible and unique case,” said Wasvary.
Tests suggested Joshi would be a good candidate for the immunotherapy drug Keytruda.
“He had stage four disease to multiple parts of his body, but with current day management and the ability to look at the biology of his tumor, we’re actually able to target his therapy, give him therapy, and all of his tumors disappeared without even the need for surgery.”
Dr. Harry Wasvary, the Chief of Colorectal Surgery at Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital
Joshi responded incredibly to the drug, with almost no side effects.
“There’s no fatigue, there’s no nausea. I could do the treatment in the morning and go to work, and nobody would even know that I had gone through a treatment,” said Joshi.
He credits years of meditation with helping him stay strong.
After 16 months of treatment, there was no evidence of cancer remaining. But Joshi is painfully aware that most patients are not so fortunate when their cancer is detected late.
“I just happened to be the luckiest guy on earth, right? That the stars lined up. And in spite of my procrastination, here I am in remission,” said Joshi.
Wasvary said, like Joshi, most of the patients he sees with colorectal cancer did not have any symptoms.
“Symptoms could be a change in bowel habits, abdominal pain, weight loss that you can’t account for, bloody stools.
But most people just present. They don’t realize anything’s going on.
Some people will present with anemia, low blood counts, and they don’t realize it, that the tumor is quietly reducing their hemoglobin numbers and causing anemia.”
Dr. Harry Wasvary, the Chief of Colorectal Surgery at Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital
That makes getting that routine colonoscopy even more important.
Joshi wants everyone to understand that colonoscopies can’t just detect cancer; they can prevent it.
“So if I would have done that, sure, I would have had maybe only polyps that I would have found that probably would have never become cancerous,” said Joshi.
The recommended age to start routine colonoscopies is now 45 years old.
It was lowered because doctors are seeing so many more cases in people under age 50.
If you have any symptoms or family history, share that with your doctor because you may need a colonoscopy much sooner.
Wasvary hopes raising awareness of the lifesaving benefits of colonoscopy will encourage more people to get screened on time.
“There’s a taboo about colonoscopy, about talking about colonoscopy, there’s taboo surrounding the prep and how rough it will be on one’s system, but it is certainly one of the screening options that will actually save lives and will reduce the incidence of cancer.”
Dr. Harry Wasvary, the Chief of Colorectal Surgery at Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital
After putting off his colonoscopy, Joshi now believes in the benefits of getting it on schedule.
“Silly of me that I kind of procrastinated, but that’s a small price to pay or inconvenience to have the assurance that you don’t have colon cancer or be able to detect it early and treat it as fast as you can. It could change your life.”
Rajeev Joshi
