Colon Cancer Prevention & Screening

Colon cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in the United States, causing an estimated 57,000 deaths each year. The myth that colon cancer is a just a "Man’s Disease" is wrong. Colon cancer strikes equally among women and men and has no racial bias. Colon cancer often strikes without any warning signs or symptoms. Usually, colon cancer occurs in mid-life, after the age of 50 years.

What most people do not know is that the majority of colon cancers begin as a polyp, an abnormal growth of tissue found on the wall of the colon. When polyp(s) are detected, they may be removed at the pre-malignant state and prevent the development of colon cancer.

Average Risk:

• Every adult over age 50 yrs

• Family history (parent, sibling, child) of colon cancer or an adenomatous colon polyp
• Familial Polyposis Coli Syndrome
• Family Cancer Syndrome
• Personal history of colon polyps
• Personal history of Crohn’s Disease or Ulcerative colitis

If you experience any of the following signs or symptoms, see your doctor.

• Rectal bleeding or pain
• Change in a regular bowel habit
• Unexplained anemia
• Weight loss
• New onset of lower abdominal pains

• The strategy for reducing colorectal cancer deaths is simple.

• For normal risk individuals, screening tests begin at age 50 and the preferred approach is a screening colonoscopy every 10 years; an alternate strategy consists of annual stool test for blood and a flexible sigmoidoscopic exam every 3 to 5 years.

• Colonoscopic surveillance (also call screening colonoscopy) needs to be available at more frequent intervals for individuals at high risk for colon cancer (for instance, those with a personal history of colorectal cancer or adenomatous polyps; family history of colorectal cancer; nonhereditary polyposis; colorectal cancer; or a predisposing condition such as inflammatory bowel disease. (Medicare provides for surveillance colonoscopy no more frequently than once every two years for those at high risk. )

• For both average and high risk individuals, all potential pre-cancerous polyps must be removed.

If you have a first degree relative (parent, brother or sister) that had an adenomatous colon polyp there is a modest, but important, increased risk for you to develop adenomatous polyps and colon cancer. If you can’t determine whether the close relative’s polyp was hyperplastic or adenomatous, it is prudent to treat it as if it were adenomatous and be screened. It is generally recommended that you have colonoscopy at an age 10 years younger than when your first degree relative was discovered to have adenomatous polyp(s) or age 40, which ever occurs first.

• Reduction of animal fat in the diet
• Increased vegetables and fiber in the diet
• Perhaps an aspirin tablet each day
• Calcium and the vitamin, folic acid