colon cancer

“I’m an avid sports fan.  I am proud of what the sports community has done to help raise awareness for breast cancer.  If you watch sports enough you will frequently see the “pink” awareness color of breast cancer in the stands, on uniforms, on athletic equipment and on signs and banners.  We need this constant reminder because breast cancer is preventable, yet still takes way too many lives.  Colon cancer awareness color is “dark blue”.  This color, and reminder, I don’t see nearly enough.  Colon cancer, also preventable, is the second leading cause of cancer death in our country.  It’s my job as a gastroenterologist to

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With March being colon cancer awareness month, I wanted to share some important information regarding prevention along with some specific awareness events that are occurring in the San Antonio area in 2016 to help promote colon cancer awareness for our community.

Colon Cancer Facts

• It is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death.
• The lifetime risk of being diagnosed with colorectal cancer is about one in 19.
• While most people diagnosed with colon cancer have no family history of the disease, those with a family history of the disease should begin screening at an earlier age.
• With early screening and testing, colon cancer is Preventable, Treatable & Beatable!

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With March quickly approaching, I wanted to provide a reminder that this is colon cancer awareness month.  The American Cancer Society estimates that 50,000 people in the United States alone will loose their life to colon cancer in 2015.  With that in mind, it’s important for us to promote that this cancer is very treatable to family, friends and co-workers in San Antonio TX.
The key is to get screened at the recommended age.  Here are a few key points to keep in mind regarding Colon Cancer and links to valuable resources:

• American College

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One of the questions I frequently get from my younger patients here in San Antonio, Texas, is regarding the right age at which to first get screened for colorectal cancer.  I am a big advocate of prevention and I promote colon cancer screening with colonoscopy.  I had my first colonoscopy at age 40.  However, this awareness message typically references the recommended colon cancer screening ages established by the American College of Gastroenterology.  Following those guidelines you would typically start screening at age 50 unless other factors prevailed, such as family history.

The good news is we, as gastroenterologists, have done a great job with colorectal cancer in patients over the

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There is a lot of information out there about colon cancer screening. Some of it is good information and some of it is not. One of my jobs as a physician is to help my patients decide which is which, and help guide them in their preventative health care choices. Colon cancer screening is something I take very serious. I have had colon cancer screening myself and I’ve made sure all my loved ones who are of the appropriate age have had a screening as well. There are different methods available out there for all types of health screening. I get questions all the time about the right way to screen for colon cancer. So how do we choose the

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A patient brought me an article last week from Reader’s Digest magazine that listed different questions you should ask your gastroenterologist prior to your colonoscopy.  I felt that two of them were important to comment on that relate to the quality indicators for colonoscopy.  In medicine, a lot of money and time is spent on what we call Quality Indicators – things that help us predict if our colleagues, or ourselves, are practicing the best medicine we can. That article prompted me to write this blog.

We track quality indicators closely in my group as we

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