Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month — Here’s What You Need To Know About Screening
March was Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, but it’s always a good time to schedule your screening!
Since 2000, March has been the time for colon cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, and advocates join together to spread awareness of colorectal cancer and the importance of prevention.
In honor of this year’s Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, we sat down with Abbey Ruland, PA-C at Mountrail County Medical Center, to learn her best tips and helpful information about colorectal cancer screenings. While Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month has passed, these things are always important to keep in mind.
Read on to learn some facts about colon cancer, the recommended timeline for screenings, and the different types of screenings available.
Did You Know…? Facts About Colon Cancer
Each year, around 150,000 people are diagnosed with colon cancer in the U.S.
It is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second deadliest type of cancer in the U.S. The average age of diagnosis is 66 years old, but people in their 40s and 50s are increasingly being diagnosed as well. In fact, about 10% of those diagnosed with colorectal cancer are now under age 50.
The good news is that screenings can detect colorectal cancer — and when detected early, it is a highly treatable form of cancer. While more than 50,000 people will die from colon cancer this year, many more will survive their diagnosis, thanks to regular screenings.
How Often Should You Have a Colorectal Cancer Screening?
Previously, it was recommended that people start to get regular colon cancer screenings once they hit age 50. However, due to the increasing trend of colon cancer in younger people, that recommendation has changed — we now recommend screening starting at age 45.
If caught in the early (precancerous) stages, colon cancer or colonic polyps can easily be removed during a colonoscopy. This is great news, because that means those polyps cannot continue to grow into colon cancer! In fact, if everyone had their screening done early enough, we could nearly wipe out advanced colon cancer.
But having a colonoscopy is not exactly everyone’s idea of fun (it would be strange if it was!), so let’s talk about the various screening options available.
What Colon Cancer Screening Options Are Available?
Colonoscopy
The “gold standard” in colon cancer screening is the colonoscopy. This procedure is done at an outside facility: Most of our patients have them done in Minot, Tioga, or Bismarck, but we are happy to arrange your screening where it is most convenient for you.
A colonoscopy usually involves a day of “prep” in which the colon is cleaned out. This involves drinking clear liquids, taking laxatives, and spending a significant amount of time in the bathroom. Then the next day, you go to the facility for the colonoscopy, are sedated, and a surgeon uses a camera to look through the colon to find any abnormalities. (Note that because you are given sedation for the procedure, you will need to have a driver pick you up afterwards.)
The best part of a colonoscopy is that if any polyps are found, they can be removed, and the problem is solved before it even begins!
If your colonoscopy is totally normal, we recommend having one every 10 years.
DNA Stool Testing and FIT Tests
For many patients, a colonoscopy is not the only screening option available. There are a number of less invasive screening tools, including DNA stool-based testing (a.k.a., Cologuard) and FIT tests.
To qualify for either of these tests, patients need to be considered “low risk.” This means they need to have no family history of either colon cancer or precancerous polyps. Also, patients who have a history of precancerous polyps on previous colonoscopies do not qualify for stool screening tests.
DNA stool testing consists of a kit you can receive in the mail. You then place a stool sample in the appropriate container and mail it back to the company. The company will test the stool for blood and other DNA markers that can indicate colon cancer or precancerous polyps.
If your results are negative, we recommend retesting every three years. If your results are positive, that may mean the test found cancer, but more commonly it means it found precancerous polyps that need to be removed. We would then schedule you for a colonoscopy for further evaluation, and if there is a precancerous polyp it will be removed during the procedure.
The FIT test is more basic than the DNA test, as it only checks for blood in the stool. This test needs to be completed yearly and is a little more likely to miss a cancer or precancerous polyp. Again, if the test returns a positive result it would be followed by a colonoscopy for further evaluation.
Neither of these tests require any prep, and both can be done from home, keeping you from missing a day or two of work.
In addition, we now have standing orders in place for our patients for these tests, which means if you’re a regular patient who is at low risk, you can give us a call, speak to a nurse, and place an order for these tests to be completed…without even coming in for an appointment!
Schedule Your Colorectal Cancer Screening With MCMC Today
At MCMC, our goal is to help each of our patients live their longest, best life. We want to find problems before they begin — which is why colorectal cancer screening is so important. We encourage you to schedule an annual wellness exam to make sure we are keeping you in tip-top shape! Please don’t hesitate to schedule an appointment or reach out to the nurses to ask about getting your colorectal cancer screening scheduled today.