Rush Against Time

The Importance of MSI Testing for Lynch Syndrome Lynch syndrome is an inherited, genetic mutation that is associated with an increased risk of endometrial, gastric, and ovarian cancers. It is also the numbe...

Lynch Syndrome Awareness Day is March 22nd. We are spreading awareness leading up to it! Please share Jacqueline's story from her parents Joan and Allen Rush."

"When Jacqueline was 16, she went to her doctor for symptoms of abdominal cramping, constipation and intermittent re**al bleeding. Even though we told her doctor that her grandfather had died of colore**al cancer, her doctor said it couldn’t be cancer because you don’t get colore**al cancer at this age. We accepted this. That was a tragic mistake. In hindsight, we should have pressed her doctor to order a colonoscopy

Over time as her symptoms worsened, she continued to see her doctor and in college even went to the emergency room. It took 4 years and several doctors to finally get properly diagnosed with colore**al cancer caused by Lynch Syndrome. By that time, her cancer was advanced instead of prevented or caught early when it could’ve been cured.

Jacqueline lost her life because of the perfect storm: Her pediatrician had never heard of Lynch Syndrome, we were not aware that Lynch Syndrome was in our family’s genes, and the medical community’s belief that you can’t get CRC at a young age. If any 1 of those 3 things had been different, Jacqueline's story would’ve had a happy ending."

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Jacqueline Rush Foundation Approximately 1 in 280 people in the US have Lynch Syndrome. Only 5% of those have been diagnosed.