March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Every year in the United States 150,000 cases of new colon cancer are diagnosed. The best way to prevent colon cancer is to have a colonoscopy. Thirteen percent of patients diagnosed with colon cancer are under fifty. Anybody 45 or over should have a colonoscopy. If you have a first degree relative, you should have colonoscopy at age 40 or ten years before your first degree relative had colon cancer whichever comes first.

Our office will soon be conducting a study comparing a blood test for screening colonoscopy. If you had a blood test that showed a precancerous polyp, would you not want to know?

Also, perhaps in the future the blood test would confirm that the entire precancerous or cancerous polyp was removed

Author
Jeffrey Crespin, MD Clinical Assistant Professor at NYU MD, MBA, AGAF, FACP

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