The whole goal of colonoscopy and cancer screening is to truly prevent the cancers from occurring. And if we can prevent the polyp from changing to a cancer, then the cancer treatment becomes unnecessary for those people.
Traditionally, the initial screening for colorectal cancer has been at age 50, and the recommendation was to begin at that point and now has been lowered to 45. And that's really significant because there really is about 12% or so of the patients
who are diagnosed with colorectal cancer each year are actually younger than 50.
I've seen patients as young as in their 20s, but I've also seen many patients in their 40s, not just with a polyp diagnosis, but a full-blown cancer, and even many patients recently with cancer that had metastasized already that we then had to be
much more aggressive with their treatment.
Screening Methods
Is a colonoscopy the best way to screen for colon cancer? Yes, it is. Now, the reason for that is because, it's twofold. It provides two things. Number one, you get to look at the colon in its entirety,
And then secondarily, by an intervention standpoint. If the colonoscopy is being done, and you see a polyp, you can remove or biopsy that polyp, and that can provide a diagnosis.
Removing the polyp removes the risk of that specific polyp, so that's an important piece so all of that gets done at once.
There are other potential methods for screening,
Now we have stool tests that look for DNA, so they may find polyps, and they may find true cancers, of course, and that can be done by a simple stool test.
Who Should Be Screened?
When you look at the data, you may see really a 20% higher rate of colorectal cancer amongst the African-American population.
I encourage all of our patients to do screening for cancer. I explain from my own perspective that it's also always better to prevent a cancer than it is to treat one.
I had a colonoscopy before age 50. I had three polyps found. I had a second colonoscopy with no polyps after that. And so my goal, just as it is for my own patients, is to prevent colorectal cancer.
The Benefit Of Early Diagnosis
An early diagnosis is an incredible benefit.
It's a big deal to be able to prevent cancer, which is the real importance of screening.
