Colorectal Cancer Screening Guidelines
Colorectal Cancer Screening Guidelines
According to the American Cancer Society, colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among men and women in the United States. Overall, rates have slowly declined in the last 10 years; however, cases in people under the age of 55 have gone up by 2% almost each year. One in 5 people who are diagnosed with colorectal cancer are under the age of 55, and the overall lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer is about 1 in 23 for men and 1 in 25 for women. The five year survival rate for colorectal cancer is 90%+ when found in its early stages; however, this rate drops down to as low as 13% once the cancer has spread. This is why it is extremely important to follow screening recommendations.
Screening begins at the age of 45, and the intervals (or how often) you should get screened depend on which test you choose.
Your doctor uses a long, thin, flexible tube to look for polyps and cancer inside the rectum and entire colon. These abnormalities often can be removed during the procedure. The procedure requires a preparation day, where you will drink a solution that will help clear your colon of all its contents.
There are several versions of this test and your physician will choose the best one for you. These tests involve collecting a stool sample that will be assessed for blood or altered DNA. The test can produce false positives, and an abnormal result will lead to a colonoscopy to confirm or deny a diagnosis.
This procedure is like the colonoscopy, but it only looks at about a third of the colon, therefore it can miss small polyps and/or colorectal cancer. Abnormalities cannot be removed during the procedure, and abnormal results will lead to a colonoscopy.
Also known as a virtual colonoscopy, this uses computed tomography to produce images of the colon. Due to many different factors, the accuracy of this test is debatable, therefore it is not widely used compared to other tests. The test does require a full bowel prep like the colonoscopy but can sometimes miss small polyps, and abnormal results will lead to a colonoscopy.
