Screening for Colon Cancer
Medicare, Medicaid and more than 90% of private health insurance companies cover screening colonoscopy.
Why should you get screened for colon cancer?
- • Colon cancer kills 1,400 New Yorkers each year.
And it kills more non-smokers than any other cancer.
- • Colon cancer can almost always be prevented if
polyps are detected and removed early before they become cancerous.
- • Colon cancer can usually be cured if cancerous
polyps are removed at an early stage of the disease.
- • Colon cancer is usually without symptoms.
The NYC DOHMH recommends that everyone age 50 or older should see a doctor and get a colonoscopy.
Here's why:
- • Colon cancer can develop anywhere in the colon and colonoscopy examines the entire colon.
- It uses a flexible tube with a camera at one end, and generally lasts about 30 minutes.
- • Colonoscopy is the only colon cancer examination
that can actually remove growths (polyps) before they develop into cancer.
- • Colonoscopy is the only cancer screening method
proven to prevent cancer in both men and women.
- • Colonoscopies are safe and usually painless and
are generally needed only every 5-10 years.
- Patients may be sedated with pain medication and
muscle relaxants.
- There may be some discomfort.
- The risk of complications is less than 1 in 1,000.
Below are some additional colon cancer screening tests, though they may not be as effective as a colonoscopy for detecting and treating colon cancer. Regardless of the test you choose, in all cases, positive results should be followed up with colonoscopy.
- • Fecal Occult Blood Test (FOBT)
- Also called Hemoccult Test, this screening procedure
finds small amounts of blood that can't be seen in the stool.
- FOBT includes a card with instructions on taking
stool samples at home and returning them for testing.
- A positive result indicates that further testing may be needed.
- • Barium Enema X-Ray
- A chalky substance is given as an enema, then a
series of x-rays is taken.
- This test should be performed every 5 years.
- • Sigmoidoscopy
- This screening test uses a flexible tube inserted
into the rectum, similar to colonoscopy.
- The sigmoidoscopy tube is shorter, so it does not
examine as much of the colon as colonoscopy.
- Unlike a colonoscopy, it doesn't remove polyps.
- This test should be done every 5 years.
- • Virtual Colonoscopy (VC)
- In this test, a radiologist uses a CAT scanner to
take x-rays of the inside of the colon and displays them in 3-D.
- If polyps are found, a VC cannot remove them.
- Health insurance does not cover VC so you have to pay
for it out-of-pocket.
- No multi-center clinical research trials have been done on VC.
