Colorectal Cancer Testing Can Save Your Life

Thanksgiving is upon us and it is a perfect time to talk about colon cancer screening.  This year, I am thankful that we have tests available that can help find colon cancer early and save lives! 

Colorectal (colon) cancer is the second leading cancer in men and women in the United States.  The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends one of three tests to test for colon cancer – colonoscopy, stool tests (guaiac fecal occult blood test – FOBT or fecal immunochemical test – FIT), and sigmoidoscopy (rarely done.)  Most individuals do not know there are less invasive tests, in comparison to colonoscopies, that can be done to check for colon cancer. 

Do you know what the best test is to test for colon cancer?  The one you have done. 

According to the CDC, approximately 23 million adults living in the United States have never been tested.  This is 1 in 3 people!  And, about 2/3rds of these individuals have a regular doctor they visit and health insurance that could pay for the cancer screening! 

So, what can you do?

•  Learn about ALL the available tests and, with your doctor’s help, choose the one that is best for you
• Keep track of your family history and personal history
• Encourage friends and family to be tested for colon cancer
• Visit The Colon Cancer Foundation for more information about screening and colon cancer

90% of individuals live five or more years when their colon cancer is found early through testing.

So, what are you waiting for?  Call your doctor today.

Which test should you choose?

Colonoscopy

• Family history of colorectal (colon) cancer or polyps
• Personal history of inflammatory bowel disease
• Can help reduce death from colon cancer
• Can remove precancerous or abnormal growths in colon during tests
• Finds most cancer or polyps that are present
• Done every 10 years if no polyps are found

FOBT/FIT

• No family history of colon cancer or polyps
• No history of inflammatory bowel disease
• Can help reduce death from colon cancer
• Safe and easy to complete
• Test is performed at home on your own schedule
• Finds cancer early by screening for blood in stool
• Can find most cancers if performed each year

Of course, discuss both these options with your doctor and, with his or her assistance, choose the right test for your situation.

The Thanksgiving holiday is a perfect time to sit down with your relatives and compile your family history for your doctor’s visit, as well a great opportunity to encourage them to be tested for colon cancer themselves.  Next year, you might be thankful you did.

For more information, visit the Colon Cancer Foundation.

We hope you have a safe, happy, and healthy Thanksgiving.

Source: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control’s CDC Vital Signs November 2013 located at http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/colorectal/basic_info/screening/infographic.htm.

Let Me Introduce Myself

Let me take a minute to introduce myself. I am Julia Gibson, a twin mother, wife, accountant, scrapbooker, card maker, jewelry maker, nap sneaker, MBA candidate, and a mommy blogger at Mom on the Run x2.  I have taken over managing the Susie’s Cause blog and will be bringing you articles and information about colon cancer and colon cancer research.

I wanted to share my story with you on how I came to find Susan Cohan Colon Cancer Foundation. In December of 2012, my husband began having severe cramps/pains in his lower stomach. He ignored them. Around Memorial Day in 2013, he came down with a “bug.” We went to the doctor three times and each time we were told he had a virus and it had to run its course. Finally, after a week of vomiting and being severely dehydrated, he felt there was something seriously wrong and went to the hospital. Tests came back showing a completely blocked bowel. They rushed him into emergency surgery and removed a 16” section of his colon. The mass was sent to pathology and came back as colon cancer. He was 37. He was immediately entered into a genetic study at The Ohio State University on Lynch Syndrome. (Lynch Syndrome is a hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer caused by genetic mutations.)

During the healing process, in a quest to find all the information I could about colon cancer and early diagnosis, I came across the Susan Cohan Colon Cancer Foundation. It is here that I began to understand exactly what colon cancer was and what the treatment options are. It was here I began to have hope and to feel like we were not the only ones going through this. When I later contacted the Foundation to see if I could help them by spreading the word on my personal blog, I was asked to become the blog manager. I readily accepted.

My husband and I were lucky. They took 16 lymph nodes during his surgery, and all of them came back negative for cancer. He was staged at 2A and did not require chemo or radiation. We recently went for his three month checkup and he was clean. We will continue with follow-ups with the oncologist for the rest of his life.

You can be screened before age 50 (45 for African-Americans). You can seek another opinion if your current doctor won’t listen to your concerns. If you think something is wrong, or you have unexplained pain – go to the doctor, don't wait. You can take steps now to protect yourself from cancer. 

According to research, 50% of colon cancer could be prevented with lifestyle changes and 95% could be cured with early detection. 

My goal for this blog is to help spread the word about screening and treatment for colon cancer. I hope you will join us.

For more information, visit the Susan Cohan Colon Cancer Foundation.

Continuing Research for a Colon Cancer Vaccine

Everyone reading this likely has received a vaccine of some kind, such as one for polio, flu or measles. For those affected by colon cancer, a vaccine for the disease may seem like a far-fetched dream, but maybe it isn’t. News from the world of cancer vaccine research is very encouraging—colon cancer vaccines are being studied at several major research centers and the early results look promising.

Cancer vaccines, in general, are nothing new, of course. They typically fall into one of two categories: preventive and treatment.  Preventive vaccines prevent cancer from developing in healthy people. These are similar to the traditional vaccines most of us have had.

Two preventive cancer vaccines that have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are Gardasil® and Cervarix®, which protect against infection from the virus that can cause cervical cancer. You have likely seen advertisements for these vaccines. Another preventive vaccine protects against hepatitis B (HBV) infection, which can lead to liver cancer. Most children in the United States receive this vaccine shortly after birth.

Treatment vaccines treat an existing cancer by strengthening the body’s natural defenses against the cancer. Only one cancer treatment vaccine has been approved by the FDA. Provenge® is used to treat some men who have metastatic prostate cancer (cancer that has spread to other parts of the body).

In September, Susie’s Cause made a donation to the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins to fund research for a colon cancer vaccine. The team at Hopkins recently completed a phase 1 clinical trial of a vaccine. Their new study will test a combination vaccine therapy in advanced colorectal cancer patients who have completed chemotherapy. If successful, this treatment would give patients a way to keep their disease stable after treatment and could prove to be helpful in earlier stages of the disease as well. 

Other colon cancer vaccine studies are taking place at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. The University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute announced initial success of their colon cancer vaccine in human trials earlier this year. Their study, published in the January 2013 edition of Cancer Prevention Research, showed that their vaccine is safe and produced the immune response they expected.

These are exciting times in cancer research! The Susan Cohan Colon Cancer Foundation will be watching to see how these studies unfold. Be sure to check our website (www.coloncancerfoundation.org) and like our page on Facebook for the latest developments.