Tony Snow, Former Bush Press Secretary, Dies at 53: A Reminder About Familial Colon Cancer and Opportunities for Prevention

Tony Snow, the conservative writer, commentator, and former Bush administration Press Secretary, died on the morning of July 12 at the age of 53 of colorectal cancer. 

It's worth mentioning that Mr. Snow had a family history of colon cancer, as his mother apparently died of the disease when he was 17 years old.  As Mr. Snow has publicly acknowledged a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis (UC), it seems most likely that the cancer in his family is related to UC, rather than to what are arguably the two most important hereditary cancer predisposition syndromes for colon cancer, Lynch syndrome (aka hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer or HNPCC) and familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP).

The lifetime risk for colon cancer in individuals at average risk in the United States is about 5 percent.  Nine out of ten cases occur after the age of 50.  Individuals with ulcerative colitis have a ~3- to 12-fold elevated risk of developing colon cancer depending on the extent of colon involvement and the length of time the disease has been present.  Ulcerative colitis risk is influenced by genetics, but the inheritance is complex, without major deterministic susceptibility genes like those for FAP (APC) and Lynch syndrome (MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, PMS2). 

Mr. Snow's death is an opportunity to remind folks that colon cancer, in general, is a highly preventable disease.  Stay tuned to future posts for more details.

Comments

[Steven Murphy MD]

Matt,
Great review. I want to point out something that you may not have been aware. Tony Snow's mother died of colorectal cancer when he was 17 years old. He had been getting fairly aggressive colonoscopies. I do think that this could have been a fast growing tumor. I think for the sake of the family it is a must to at least have IHC and MSI testing preformed on his tumor sample. I wonder if it was performed on his first episode of tumor? If not, that would be a huge miss IMHO. The first degree relative with early onset and death from CRC changes the outlook. Not exactly Bethesda, but we all know the shortcomings in algorithmic and criteria based triggers for testing.

-Steve
www.thegenesherpa.blogspot.com

[Ben]

Hi,

The 12th edition of the Cancer Research Blog Carnival is fast approaching, and I'm writing to let you know that I've issued a call for submissions at http://nosugrefneb.com/weblog/437 . If you have written any posts within the last month or so—or if you're planning to write one soon—that you'd like to have featured, please let me know! The post will go up on the morning of August 1.

Thanks in advance,
Ben