Colorectal Cancer--Screen for Life
Ask most women what their most feared cancer is and breast
cancer will usually be the answer. But colorectal cancer is a bigger threat.
Despite this, colorectal cancer screening rates are much lower than breast cancer
screening rates. The CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] wants
change: they want men and women aged 50 and older to ask their health care
providers about being screened for colorectal cancer. Or, as Katie Couric says,
"take your butt to your doctor!"
How big a problem is this? More than 135,000 new cases of
colorectal cancer will be diagnosed this year, and we will bury more than 56,000
Americans after colon cancer. As with most cancers, colorectal cancer risk
increases with age: 9 out of 10 cases affect people over 50. There is strong
scientific evidence that regular screening tests can reduce colorectal cancer's
death toll. This means annual stool occult blood testing, sigmoidoscopy every
5 years, and colonoscopy every 10 years. [There is now even a "virtual colonoscopy"
test using CT scan which is non-invasive.]
For more information, click here.
Created: 8/27/2001  - Donnica Moore, M.D.