Screening for Colon Cancer

There are many methods to detect colon cancer, even tissues that seem suspicious, thus lowering the risk of developing colon cancer. If this type of cancer is detected in its early stages, the 5 year survival percentage in colon cancer patients is about ninety percent. This number drops to almost sixty percent if tissues around your colon cancer have been affected. When distant portions of your body have been affected by this cancer, the survival rate is less than ten percent. So, you see why detecting colon cancer in an early stage is a must.

Even if there are several methods of detecting colon cancer, some of them are more used than the others.

One of the most common methods of screening is the rectal exam. Your doctors inserts a finger into your rectum to detect any abnormalities. This method can detect certain polyps and even colon cancer, but unfortunately it is limited to your rectum area alone.

Fobt is another test that is made to detect colon cancer. It was some controversy in the past concerning this test. Some said that the results of this did not reduce the rate of deaths caused by colon cancer. Nowadays, it has been proven otherwise. Studies showed that by the findings of this test alone, the number of deaths cause by colon cancer was reduced bu almost 20% . When doing this test, patients have to take home a kit, take 3 consecutive samples of bowel moments and than send the kit to a lab. Blood found in the stool is a big colon cancer sign or of polyps, that may turn into colon cancer.

Colonoscopy is another common method used to detect colon cancer. A lighted tube is inserted into your rectum, giving the doctor the chance to examine your entire colon. During this screening procedure most of the patients are under sedation. If polyps are discovered, they can also be removed, lowering the risk of developing colon cancer.

The barium enema is another of the methods used to detect colon cancer. This enema is done to increase the quality of x-rays that will be taken after. This way, if you have any polyps in your colon or suffer from colon cancer, doctors will be able to tell right away.

There are also some other methods to detect colon cancer or polyps, but they are not as common, for one reason or another.

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