Colon cancer is probably not the most popular lunchtime topic for you and your co-workers. Nor is it likely that you'll be chatting about fecal blood tests with your neighbor as you trim your lilac bushes. It's an uncomfortable subject due in part to the manner in which it's detected. Subjects involving bodily functions are uncomfortable to discuss with medical professionals - let alone people you see more than once a year while wearing more than a couple of yards of cotton fabric.
Perhaps it's the reluctance we have about discussing it that makes colon cancer the #2 cancer killer in the United States - second only to lung cancer. In fact, there are approximately 150,000 new cases diagnosed every year in this country, with over 50,000 deaths resulting.
Do we have your attention yet?
Here are a few more facts we've collected. Feel free to throw them around while chatting with your friends... they may look at you funny, but if it helps even one of them catch colorectal cancer early - it will be worth the risk of being talked about behind your back or uninvited to happy-hour for a couple of weeks, we promise.
- The lifetime risk for an American to get CRC is 1 in 19 for both men and women.
- Annual screening with a proven Fecal Occult Blood Test (FOBT) can lead to the detection and removal of polyps and reduce the risk of getting CRC by 20%.
- Annual screeting by FOBT can help reduce the number of deaths from CRC by 15-33%.
- The five-year survival rate from CRC is about 90% when the disease is detected early, compared to only 11% when it is detected in a later stage.
- Annual screening with a proven FOBT can detect 90% of CRC cases in average risk individuals; i.e., those who are age 50 and older and have no symptoms.
Additional information about colorectal cancer can be found at one of these websites:
The Colon Cancer Alliance
American College of Gastroenterology
Johns Hopkins Colon Cancer Information
The Colon Club
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