Colorectal cancer, also known as colon cancer, is most often found in people 50-years or older.
It’s the second most common cancer killer in the U.S., but doctors and other experts say it doesn’t have to be.
Doctors, nurses and other officials from groups like the American Cancer Society gathered in Bridgeport to bring awareness to the importance of colorectal screening.
“Nationwide, we have a goal with the National Colorectal Roundtable to increase screening rates to 80% by 2018,” said Kevin Tephabock, Senior Manager of Primary Care with the American Cancer Society. “Right now in West Virginia, our screening rates are in the 60s, so that means that 40% of the people aren’t even being screened that need to be screened. So, we have a real opportunity to save some lives.”
The Centers for Disease Control says nine out of every ten patients whose colorectal cancers are found early and treated, are still alive five years later.
“Screening is very important,” said Robert Smith, Senior Dr. of Cancer Screenings with the American Cancer Society. “Very much like cervical cancer, with the screening for colorectal cancer, we have an opportunity to prevent the disease, as well as find it early. That has enormous benefits. In this country, we have seen the death rate from colorectal cancer and the incidents rate from colorectal cancer declining over recent years. We have much more work to do, of course, but we potentially can steadily reduce the burden of this disease overtime, principally through screening.
While screenings are low across the nation, The Mountain State is actually ahead of the curgve on the pledge to have 80% of people screened by 2018.
“We’re one of the 15 states right now that have made pledges to the National Colorectal Roundtable, we have 200 organizations nationwide that have signed up for the pledge, 25 of those have come from West Virginia,” Tephabock added. “So, I’m very very proud that we’ve got more than 10% of the nationwide pledges have come from West Virginia.”
Those in attendance said they learned a lot from the conference, and are excited to get back to their practices to help lower the colorectal cancer death rate.
Still, the team believes the findings are important for identifying which individuals are most likely to see reduced colorectal cancer risk with regular aspirin and/or NSAID use. “Validation of these findings in additional populations may facilitate targeted colorectal cancer prevention strategies,” they add.
In an editorial linked to the study, Dr. Richard C. Wender, of the American Cancer Society, says the findings from Dr. Chan and colleagues may bring us a step closer to “affordably and efficiently” conducting genetic testing in order to reduce disease risk in healthy individuals.
“It will be important for primary care clinicians to understand genetic risk and to have informed, clear, literacy-adjusted, culturally competent discussions with their patients about how to use this information,” he adds, “otherwise, the goal of using genetic information to enhance decision making about prevention will remain elusive. Research needs to test different approaches to translating this complex information into practical methods to share information and improve clinical decisions.”
Earlier this month, Medical News Today reported on a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine that associated a vegetarian diet with a 22% reduced risk of colorectal cancer.
