March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month
Get yourself checked and save your lifeColorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in both men and women in the United States, and Kentuckians are no exception. Unfortunately, there are usually no symptoms of colorectal cancer until the disease is too far advanced. The good news, however, is that, if prevented and treated early, colorectal cancer has a fairly good cure rate.
The death rate from colorectal cancer has been dropping for the past 15 years. One reason for this is because polyps are being found and removed by screening colonoscopy before they can turn into cancer.
"That's why it's so important to get regular screenings with a colonoscopy. The American Cancer Society recommends an initial screening for both men and women at age 50. African-Americans and other groups at higher risk for this disease should have a colonoscopy earlier," said Luis Peña, M.D., UK gastroenterologist who holds a weekly specialty clinic at Harrison Memorial Hospital.
Some common risk factors for the disease are advanced age, African-American race, a history of inflammatory intestinal conditions, a family history of colon cancer or polyps, obesity and a high-fat, low-fiber diet, sedentary lifestyle, smoking, and alcohol use.
"There are alternative ways to somewhat screen for colon cancer for those who shy away from a colonoscopy, including:
* stool blood test (fecal occult blood test - FOBT)
* flexible sigmoidoscopy (flex-sig)
* barium enema with air contrast
* virtual colonoscopy (CT Colonography)
Discuss these options with your doctor. If any of these tests show a positive result, a colonoscopy must be done to further evaluate the colon (remove polyps,take biopsies if a mass is present, etc.)," said Peña.
Peña points out that by having a traditional colonoscopy, the physician is usually able to remove any lesions found during the same procedure, eliminating the need for a second one. "In that regard, the colonoscopy is not just diagnostic, but also therapeutic," he said.
Once a polyp is removed, it is evaluated by a pathologist to see if cancer is present or to determine what type of polyp it is. This is very important to decide how often a colonoscopy should be repeated.
"Anyone who's undergone a colonoscopy knows that the 'prep' work of drinking large amounts of fluid is worse than the procedure itself. Advances have been made that require the patient to drink far less amounts of prep fluid. There's also the option of a 'split dose', where half the fluid amount is consumed the night before and the other half four hours prior to the colonoscopy," said Peña.
"I can't stress enough, however, that bowel prep is the most important part of the test. If the patient's colon is not completely clean, doctors can't clearly see and accurately diagnose," he said.
The addition of new state-of-the-art, high-definition endoscopy technology and the use of narrow band imaging at HMH provide patients with the best resources for colonoscopies.
"Follow-up colonoscopies in future years depend upon what we find in our initial test. If the patient's results are considered normal and he or she has no risk factors, a follow-up colonoscopy can be scheduled as far out as 10 years. Other findings obviously require more frequent follow-up screenings," he said.
To schedule a colonoscopy with Dr. Luis Peña or Dr. Antonio Bosch at HMH, please speak to your primary care physician for a referral.
