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Americans Fail to Screen for Colon Cancer
Three out of four Americans aged 50 to 70 aren't getting regular colon cancer screening, according to a survey sponsored by the maker of a new screening test for the disease. Colon cancer is currently the second leading cancer killer in the United States, with 60,000 Americans expected to die from the disease this year.
The American Cancer Society recommends that everyone get a colonoscopy to test for colon cancer at age 50. But 26 percent of the 1,200 people surveyed said their doctor had never discussed colon cancer screening with them, and 24 percent said they didn't get screened because they had no symptoms of the disease. Twenty-eight percent said they didn't want to have a colonoscopy.
The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, was sponsored by EXACT Sciences Corporation, a Marlborough, Massachusetts-based company that discovers and develops technologies that assist in colon cancer screening. Stool DNA tests, which can be done at home, have a roughly 60 percent rate of detection, and rarely yield false-positive results. Such non-invasive tests are better than nothing for people who refuse to have colonoscopies, according to Stein, who notes that the American Cancer Society advises people who refuse colonoscopies to have some other type of colon cancer screening test.
The worst thing about a colonoscopy is not the test itself, which is usually performed with some sort of anesthesia, it's the preparation beforehand, Stein noted, in which a person takes laxatives and, in some cases, enemas to clear the bowel. Virtual colonoscopy, in which a CAT scan or MRI is used to scan the bowel, still requires the colon-clearing prep, while its effectiveness remains controversial and insurance does not cover it.
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