Colon Cancer Screening: Worth the Trouble

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Sure, getting screened for colon cancer is no fun. The preparation for a colonoscopy alone is enough to make a lot of people just say no!

But as the nation marks Colon Cancer Awareness Month, researchers from the University of Michigan remind everyone that screening for colon cancer saves lives.

“If we reached full compliance with colon cancer screening, we could prevent more than 90 percent of colon cancers,” D. Kim Turgeon, M.D., clinical associate professor of internal medicine in the division of gastroenterology at the UM Medical School, was quoted as saying. Unfortunately, only about 60 percent of adults are currently up-to-date with their colon cancer screening, and that suggests new tests are needed to make the process more palatable to more people.

Luckily, that’s happening. According to the researchers, a new test that searches for blood markers indicative of colon cancer is under development, as is a new screening method using a peptide labeled with a fluorescent agent. The peptide targets pre-cancerous changes in the colon and allows doctors to spot more of these changes than they can with standard screening techniques.

Virtual colonoscopy -- a method that uses a CT scan to search for abnormalities in the colon -- is making headway as well, and researchers are also working on a stool test capable of identifying DNA markers linked to cancer.

Doctors currently recommend colon cancer screening for everyone beginning at age 50, although people with certain risk factors should begin screening earlier. Detecting colon cancer at an early and more treatable stage is considered paramount to public health because colon cancer is currently the second most common form of cancer, behind lung cancer. Nearly 150,000 Americans will be diagnosed with the disease this year, and nearly 50,000 will die from it.

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SOURCE: University of Michigan, 2008