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 right test?
One of the types of tests I have been seeing in the literature and getting questions about is the FIT (fecal immunochemical test) or iFOBT (immunochemical fecal occult blood test). This is a test that looks for trace amounts, or occult, blood in your stool. Normal stool should not have blood so the presence of blood tells us something abnormal is going on. One of the conditions that can produce blood in your stool is colon polyps or colon cancer. There are also many conditions that can produce trace blood in your stool and give us a “false positive results” (stomach ulcers, benign leaky blood vessels (AVMs) and hemorrhoids just to name a few). Any time a positive FIT or iFOBT is detected we would then proceed to colonoscopy to look for a source for the blood loss. The advantage of this type of test is that it is relatively easy (you swab some of your stool at home and bring it into the office). The disadvantage is that not all polyps bleed all the time and you may get a false sense of security and a polyp may continue to grow into cancer. Most colon cancers bleed some but our goal is to find and remove polyps before they get to this stage.
Colonoscopy is the method I prefer and the one I had done myself. I have created a lot of information on my web site about colonoscopy advantages and how it is done – learn more about colonoscopy. One of the things to keep in mind when setting up a colonoscopy is who is going to be doing your exam. Remember, it’s your health, take the time to research the person that is going to be taking care of it for you. This is a computer age and there is all kinds of information out there about your physician. If there isn’t you should wonder why not. Don’t be afraid to ask them questions. They should be willing to talk about whatever you ask, if they’re not, you should wonder if they are the physician for you. I have recently written blogs about things like colonoscope cleaning, which is something you should ask your physician about and a blog about colonoscopy quality measures we have in place for colon cancer screening, which is also something you should ask them about. Colonoscopy should not be taken lightly by you or your physician. Colon cancer can and should be prevented. Do your homework- it’s your health!
Image: cdc.gov
