WICHITA, Kansas – The topic of getting screened for colon cancer isn’t always easy to talk about, and doctors say many patients have some general fears about getting the procedure done.
“Their fear of the procedure being uncomfortable, fear of it being embarrassing,” said Dr. Michael Lievens, Kansas Gastroenterology.
However, Dr. Lievens says the procedure is pretty simple.
“You are asleep. so you’re very comfortable during it so it’s unusual for people to have any pain or anything like that during it,” said Lievens.
Lievens says altogether with time to check in and getting the actual screening, it takes about two hours. At home, it takes about six hours of preparation time before you go in for the screening.
“Colon cancer doesn’t cause symptoms until it is too late for the most part, you know by the time people have pain or bleeding or obstruction in many cases it is more advanced,” said Lievens.
Lievens says that makes it more difficult to get treated. The solution get screened early.
“If you catch it early, you can cure it but more importantly colon cancer is preventable. You can actually detect something that is not yet cancer, intervene and prevent the cancer from every forming,” said Lievens.
Lievens says those with no family history of colon cancer should get screened at age 50.
If the test comes back normal, you don’t have to get screened for another 10 years.
Those with a history of colon cancer in their family should get screened 10 years before the age of the family member that was diagnosed with colon cancer.
Doctors with the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable hope to get 80 percent of adults over 50 screened for colon cancer by 2018.
