Colorectal cancers are the fourth most diagnosed cancer in adults in the United States, so it’s an excellent idea to do what you can to stay ahead of this potentially dangerous disease.
The most important step in that direction is to undergo regular screening with a colonoscopy. Each year in the US, doctors perform about 15 million colonoscopies — a screening that lowers the risk for colorectal cancer death by an impressive 60%.
Because March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, our team at Rockwall Surgical Specialists wants to shine a spotlight on the colonoscopy and provide you with the screening guidelines so you know whether it’s time for you to schedule this procedure.
The American Cancer Society used to recommend that people start screening for colorectal cancers at age 50, but the organization is seeing a benefit in starting earlier.
The new recommendations are for people of average risk to have their first colonoscopy at age 45. If we don’t find anything of concern, you should continue with the screening every 10 years. After age 75, you can talk to your primary care provider about whether to continue.
If we do find polyps during your colonoscopy, we remove them and send them to a lab for further study. If there are no suspicious cells, you can stick to the 10-year schedule. If, however, there’s evidence of abnormal or precancerous cells, you should have the screening more often.
If we do find evidence of cancer, you can get started on a treatment program knowing that you have the advantage of catching it early.
As noted, the above recommendations are for people of average risk of colorectal cancer. The overall risk for colorectal cancer is one in 24 for men and one in 26 for women.
The factors that can place you at higher risk for colorectal cancer include:
The more items on this list that you can check, the more likely it is that your primary care provider will want you to screen more frequently for colorectal cancer.
If it’s time for your colonoscopy, rest assured that you’re in great hands with our experienced surgical team. We regularly perform this important screening, and we’ll have you in and out in just a couple hours. You must arrange for transportation, as we administer a sedative to make you comfortable during your colonoscopy.
To schedule your colonoscopy, we invite you to contact one of our conveniently located offices in Rockwall, Rowlett, Greenville, Terrell, and Forney, Texas. You can call our appointment line at 972-412-7700 or use our convenient online scheduling tool.
