News About Colonoscopies -

There is some good news about colonoscopies, are you surprised? I mean no one uses the words “good” and “colonoscopies” in the same sentence, right?

Everyone is supposed to get screened for colon cancer starting at age 50, but a whole lot of us don’t. Why? Besides the fact that a root canal is more fun than a colonoscopy, cost is a factor as well. And people who don’t have health insurance are even less likely to get screened. But researchers came up with a great idea to try and get more people tested. They mailed free home colon-cancer test kits to patients of clinics that serve low-income residents. This took place in Oregon.

Their Plan Worked

213 people got the kits in the mail and a third of them used them and mailed them back. Of the 81 patients who were tested, seven had a positive test result, which means there were traces of blood in the stool. Those patients were told to get colonoscopies, and all but one of them had the procedure. Almost half the participants were Hispanic, and most of them had household incomes below the federal poverty line.

Good News

This sounds like a really good idea because the mail-in tests don’t cost much ( $12 to $20 per test) compared to more than $1,000 for a colonoscopy. The test, called a fecal immunochemical test or FIT, is 95 percent accurate, and it doesn’t require people to change their diet or quit taking medications like earlier fecal tests did.

Bad News

The FIT test should be done every year and costs can add up for clinics that serve large numbers of uninsured people. Another problem is making sure that people have access to colonoscopy if they get a positive FIT test.

Continuation

There was a measurable amount of success and the plan now is to continue testing in certain areas. Perhaps this will be a way to save lives. You can read more about this at NPR.

Statistics on Colon Cancer from The American Cancer Society

Excluding skin cancers, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in both men and women in the United States. The American Cancer Society’s estimates for the number of colorectal cancer cases in the United States for 2014 are:

96,830 new cases of colon cancer
40,000 new cases of rectal cancer

Overall, the lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer is about 1 in 20 (5%). This risk is slightly lower in women than in men.

Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States when men and women are considered separately, and the second leading cause when both sexes are combined. It is expected to cause about 50,310 deaths during 2014.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/02/26/283035527/you-got-what-in-the-mail-home-test-boosts-colon-cancer-screening