City of Hope Orange County seeks to bring cancer awareness to younger generation
Brandon Arbini was 41 years old when he was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer.
Arbini, who lives in Costa Mesa with his wife and three children, didn’t understand it. Cancer wasn’t on his radar as a nonsmoker, nondrinker and someone with no family history of the disease.
While waiting for some test results to come in, he was watching a silly movie with his daughter and began weeping.
After gastrointestinal surgery and 12 rounds of chemotherapy at City of Hope Newport Beach, he achieved remission. But Arbini’s is a cautionary tale to those under 50, especially with a new report that City of Hope Orange County has released and shared at a press conference Tuesday at the Lennar Foundation Cancer Center in Irvine.
“The Younger Face of Cancer” report reveals that Orange County has one of the highest cancer rates in people under 50 in Southern California. In fact, despite a reputation for healthy living, Orange County has the highest overall rate of cancer incidence in people under 50 compared to neighboring Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego and San Bernardino counties, according to data from the National Cancer Institute.
Dr. Amanda Schwer is a radiation oncologist and breast cancer specialist for City of Hope Orange County. She said that last week was a difficult one, as she had to give bad news to three consecutive patients in their early 30s.
“I honestly had to take a break in my office,” Schwer said. “That was a first for me. So many of my patients are under 50. It’s not the majority, but it’s getting there. We really need to think differently about the face of cancer. We need to better understand the reasons why this is happening and put more emphasis into prevention and early detection. Getting regular screenings is key.”
Orange County has the 13th highest incidence rate in the state for women under 50 getting breast cancer. By comparison, Los Angeles County ranks 26th in the state.
Researchers point to factors including changes in the environment, sedentary lifestyles, consumption of processed foods and alcohol as factors for the overall increase of early-onset cancer, according to the American Cancer Society’s 2024 report.
City of Hope Orange County Physician-in-Chief Dr. Edward Kim said a paradigm shift is occurring. Changes in screening guidelines have lowered the recommended age for colon cancer screenings from 50 to 45 for people of average risk. For mammograms, the age has lowered from 50 to 40.
“We’ve got to start with education,” Kim said. “You have to be your biggest advocate. We can no longer say that young people don’t get cancer … it’s not an older-person disease anymore.”
Kim’s specialty is lung cancer, and he said that’s not just affecting heavy smokers anymore.
“These young people didn’t smoke 10 packs a day for 10 years and get diagnosed,” he said. “There’s something else happening with their exposures, with the genetics, that’s occurring, and we need to find that out.”
City of Hope Orange County President Annette Walker said her daughter Melissa, who is in her 40s, has sent her more referrals for Melissa’s friends than Annette has received from her own friends.
“It seems so counterintuitive,” Walker said.
But stories like Arbini’s offer hope. He encourages people to trust their guts if they feel like something isn’t right, to get regular screenings and to generally take care of themselves.
He was again watching a children’s movie with his daughter recently. This time, it was “Jumanji: The Next Level.”
Arbini again started crying, but this time it was because Danny DeVito’s character changed his stance by the end of the movie and realized that growing old was a gift.
“I’ve never thought of it like that, but City of Hope gave me that gift,” he said.
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