A man who lost three relatives to a rare cancer had his stomach removed to stop the gene from killing him within two years too.
Adam Shaw was 33 years old when he learned that he had the same gene mutation as his auntie and two uncles who tragically died from gastric cancer. Doctors branded the dad-of-one a 'ticking timebomb' and told him that he could die within two years if he didn't have his stomach taken out.
While Adam was initially hesitant to go ahead with surgery, he was strongly advised by medics to undergo the procedure to prolong his life and be around for his eight-year-old child. The warehouse operative, 39, now lives without the digestive organ and bizarrely does not feel hungry anymore.
He tragically lost his auntie Susan and uncles Carl and Nigel to the rare hereditary gene mutation (Dean Atkins/Sheffield Star/ SWNS)Adam's dad lost three of his 11 siblings - sister Susan Shearman and brothers Carl and Nigel Shaw - to stomach cancer. Then Adam tested positive for the same high-risk gene mutation as his auntie and uncles. A specialist found more than 50 areas of his stomach lining had signet cell carcinoma, a highly malignant form of the disease.
In 2017, he was advised to have his stomach removed to prevent him from also getting the hereditary diffuse gastric cancer. "I was only 33 at the time, so I wasn't keen on the idea [of surgery]," Adam, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, said. "I had a bit of a think and on my behalf, my mum got in touch with a Cambridge University doctor who is researching.
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"A few weeks later, they told me I had 52 areas of signet cell carcinoma in my stomach lining. I hadn't known anything about it. They advised me to have my stomach removed, or I would be dead in two to three years. The specialist told me, 'You are literally a ticking timebomb'."
Adam said doctors had only twigged that it had been passed down through generations of the family as his dad had such a large number of siblings. He explained: "If my dad had been from a smaller family, and it had only killed one person, they would not have known to look into it so much and I would probably have died from it."
In February 2018, he underwent an operation to remove his stomach and connect his oesophagus to his intestine. Adam likened it to having an 'extreme gastric band' fitted. In the years that followed, he has endured 'agonising' complications, including multiple hernias and twisted bowels, but is now able to carry on with his life.
He said one of the strangest side effects of the procedure is that he never feels hungry. "I do feel okay in myself, but I have needed some extra operations and lost a lot of weight... I have to be careful not to overdo it," he said.
"I don't feel hungry anymore because my stomach can't send a signal to my brain. I do get hunger pains in a way, but it comes from a different place. I can't describe it - it is like losing one of your senses. People think I'm kidding when I tell them I don't have a stomach."
Adam encourages other families with a history of rare cancers to get checked out as it is now possible to 'fix' the gene in some cases. He said: "If you have a family history of these cancers, I think people should be aware of it and get tested. I have an eight-year-old, and they told me not to have any more children in case it passes on. If people know they have it, they can have IVF and 'fix' the gene."
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