March puts spotlight on colon cancer

With all debate about what the federal and state governments should do through Obamacare and Medicaid, it's easy to forget that we as individuals bear the most responsibility four our own healthcare.

The American Cancer Society is using National Colon Cancer Awareness Month to point out that colorectal cancer is one of only a handful of cancers for which screening is proven to save lives, both by finding and removing polyps before they turn cancerous, and by finding cancers early, when treatment is most likely to be successful.

That fact has resulted in a steady decline in the colorectal cancer death rate over the past 20 years, but colorectal cancer will still kill an estimated 50,310 people this year, including 340 in Nebraska, according to the ACS.

During March, the ACS is highlighting the need to do more to save lives from the nation's third leading cause of cancer death in both men and women by urging patients and their doctors to talk about the importance of colorectal cancer screening, which is recommended for people at average risk beginning at age 50.

"Although screening guidelines differ for some cancers, this is not the case for colorectal cancer," said Richard C. Wender, M.D., chief cancer control officer for the American Cancer Society and chair of the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable. "All guidelines recommend screening with either colonoscopy every 10 years or a stool test at home every year, and the benefit of screening is clear. Colon cancer screening accomplishes two things -- it prevents colon cancers from developing by removing polyps and it detects cancers early when it is highly curable."

More than 1 in 3 adults aged 50 and older are not being screened as recommended for colorectal cancer. The American Cancer Society recommends that most people begin regular screening at age 50. People at higher risk, such as those with a family history of colon cancer, may need to start screening earlier.

"A great number of people do not understand that there are choices for being screened," Wender added. "If patients are offered a choice among several screening options, then we can increase the chance they will get screened. As we like to say: the best test for you is the one you get."

The ACS recommends the following colorectal cancer screening tests:

Tests that detect precancerous polyps and cancer:

Flexible sigmoidoscopy every five years; or

Colonoscopy every 10 years; or

Double contrast barium enema (DCBE) every five years; or

CT colonography (CTC) every five years.

Tests that primarily detect cancer:

Yearly guaiac-based fecal occult blood test (gFOBT) with high test sensitivity for cancer (older versions of the Fecal Occult Blood Test should not be used to test for colorectal cancer); or

Yearly fecal immunochemical test (FIT) with high test sensitivity for cancer; or

Stool DNA test (sDNA).

Tests that detect precancerous polyps allow doctors to remove the polyps and potentially prevent cancer altogether. And while cancers detected at the earliest stage have a five-year survival rate of 90 percent, only 40 percent of colon cancers are currently detected at this stage, partly because too few people are screened.

For more information and guidance on colorectal cancer, visit cancer.org/fightcoloncancer or call the American Cancer Society 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 800-227-2345.