March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Every year in the United States 150,000 cases of new colon cancer are diagnosed. The best way to prevent colon cancer is to have a colonoscopy. Thirteen percent of patients diagnosed with colon cancer are under fifty. Anybody 45 or over should have a colonoscopy. If you have a first degree relative, you should have colonoscopy at age 40 or ten years before your first degree relative had colon cancer whichever comes first.

Our office will soon be conducting a study comparing a blood test for screening colonoscopy. If you had a blood test that showed a precancerous polyp, would you not want to know?

Also, perhaps in the future the blood test would confirm that the entire precancerous or cancerous polyp was removed