The transcript of the People Living with Cancer chat with Dr. Richard Schilsky is now available on the PLWC site.
Dr. Schilsky discussed Gastrointestinal Cancers: Scientific News for Patients on January 26, 2005 as part of the PLWC chat program.
He answered questions from family members and patients with colorectal, gall bladder, pancreatic, gastric, and esophageal cancers during the online chat.
In response to a question about new screening tests for colorectal cancer, he said:
Virtual colonoscopy and stool DNA testing are very exciting new approaches to screening for colorectal cancer. Virtual colonoscopy, which is a CT scan, seems to be as accurate as conventional colonoscopy in detecting colon polyps that are of a moderate or large size.
Stool DNA testing is still being evaluated, but it has the potential to be a better test than looking for blood in the stool because it is more specific for the presence of malignant cells.
Another question was asked about the limiting factors for using bevacizumab (Avastin) for treating advanced colorectal cancer. Dr. Schilsky replied:
Generally speaking, bevacizumab is given together with chemotherapy for patients with advanced colon cancer. Most of the time, the bevacizumab treatment is stopped when the cancer progresses.
Bevacizumab can have many side effects, including high blood pressure and a risk of perforation of the bowel, and there is very little information on how long bevacizumab can be given safely.
Throughout March, Dr. Robert Mayer from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute will answer email questions about Preventing, Screening, and Treating Colorectal Cancer. You can down load a flyer with more information, submit a question, request a transcript, or find links to recommended reading on PLWC.
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