Colorectal cancer develops with few, if any, symptoms at first.

It depends a little on the location of the colon cancer. If the cancer is closer to the anus (left side), symptoms may include blood in or on the stool, a change in bowel habits, stools that are narrower than usual and general weakness and weight loss. These symptoms are more typical for colon cancer and physicians would easily recommend a colonoscopy for further work up. However if the tumor is on the right side, almost a foot away from the anus, the symptoms may be more  general such as unexplained stomach discomfort, frequent gas, pains, or indigestion, unexplained weight loss and chronic fatigue.

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People are more likely to get a colorectal cancer screening if it is scheduled during December or around their birthdays.  Norwegians who received an invitation from the  Norwegian Colorectal Cancer Prevention Trial to come in for a sigmoidoscopy in December kept that appointment more often than in any other month.

Reminders sent the week of a person’s birthday also increased the possibility that they would keep their appointment. Read the rest of this entry »

The percentage of colorectal cancer deaths prevented by colonoscopy may be overestimated.

While still very effective in preventing colorectal cancer and deaths from the disease, limits of the test may be larger than previously thought.  Patients need to know that having colonoscopy does not guarantee that they won’t get colorectal cancer.

Experts now say that screening colonoscopy may reduce death from colorectal cancer by 60 to 70 percent and may not keep patients from dying from cancers on the right side of their colons at all.

A new Canadian study found that some people who died of colorectal cancer had a colonoscopy in the years before their cancer diagnosis.  A previous completed colonoscopy reduced chances of dying from colorectal cancer by two thirds in patients with cancers on the left side of their colons but did not decrease risk of death among those with right-sided cancers. Read the rest of this entry »

When African Americans hear a positive message that emphasizes progress being made for blacks with colon cancer, they are much more likely to want to be screened.  On the other hand, negative messages that talk about their poorer outcomes make them less willing to have screening tests.

Health communications researchers at St. Louis University asked 300 African-Americans to read one of four mock news articles about colorectal cancer, chosen randomly.  Three messages were negative, emphasizing differences from whites. One focused on the progress that blacks were making surviving colorectal cancer.

Participants who read the positive article had more positive emotional reactions and more often said they wanted to be screened.  The negative articles had the opposite effect. Read the rest of this entry »

When researchers reviewed medical records for Medicaid-insured people over 50, they found that only about half had colorectal cancer screening recommended to them by their doctors.  But only 28 percent actually received screening.

Having an on-going relationship with a doctor (medical home) made a difference.  People who had been seeing their primary care doctor for more than five years were two and a half times more likely to have been screened. Read the rest of this entry »