Colon cancer has been called the most preventable, but least
prevented, form of cancer. There are more than 143,000 new cases and
about 50,000 deaths from the disease in the U.S. each year, making it
second only to lung cancer in annual cancer mortality.
If people over 50 adhere to
medical-screening guidelines and get colonoscopies every 10 years, the
odds of dying from colon cancer are very low because doctors can see and
remove precancerous growths during the exam. It can take a decade or
more for these precancerous polyps to turn into cancer. However, half of
all Americans over 50 don't follow screening recommendations. Many
never get colon exams because of cost, inconvenience, fear, or dislike
of the unpleasant bowel-cleansing substances they must consume before
the examination. So, more than half of colon cancers are diagnosed at a
late stage, when death rates can be high, in part because the most
common screening test—a check for blood in stool—isn't good at detecting
precancerous growths.
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