Colorectal cancer is expected to cause more than 50,000 deaths in the United States this year, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). This is why doctors urge people to get screened for when it comes time.
While ACS says the number of diagnosed cases has been going down since the 80s, they, along with Dr. Eugenio Najera at the Cancer Centers of Southwest Oklahoma, said they’re starting to see an increase in cases in younger people.
“Now we’re seeing people in their 30s with colon cancer which we would never see before,” Dr. Najera said.
He said it could be related to people’s diets and lack of exercise. He suggests people start eating more fruits, vegetables, and legumes while cutting back on processed foods and meats.
“We really need to watch our diets because that’s the thing that’s increasing our rates of cancer, and by having a healthier diet, also exercise is important, so exercising at least three times a week,” Dr. Najera said. “I think maybe we can gear towards prevention and also towards prevention we start at our houses, so we need to motivate our kids to eat, and that way they’ll be doing better as adults.”
Dr. Najera said with it being the third most common cancer in men and women, people need to make sure they’re getting screened for it starting at age 45 if they don’t have a family history. There are several different screening methods. He says the gold standard is a colonoscopy.
“With that procedure, if they see polyps, then they remove them because those polyps over time can turn into cancer,” he said. “So, if they see those, they’ll get removed, and then they can look for actual colon cancer.”
He said if someone isn’t at risk of getting colon cancer, they won’t need another one for 10 years. Dr. Najera says other tests are cologuard which looks for blood tumor DNA in stool and polyp DNA in the stool. Finally, people can get a fecal occult test which only looks for blood.
If colon cancer is detected, he says they then check to see if it has spread. Dr. Najera said while people are nervous about getting a colonoscopy, it’s important for people to get screened to catch the cancer early.
“If you look at your long-term investment, you want to be there for your kids getting married, for grandkids, and the way that you’re going to get there is doing your appropriate cancer screening,” Dr. Najera said. “So definitely worthwhile taking that time focusing on our bodies.”
The Cancer Centers of Southwest Oklahoma are giving out free fecal occult tests. You can pick the test up from one of their four locations and return it there. They will call you with your results.
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