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Dr. Pankaj Vashi
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VIDEO: Dr. Vashi - Colon Cancer Screenings, Why Are They Important?

Dr. Vashi explains why colon cancer screenings are necessary.

Dr. Vashi:
There is a lot of awareness in colon cancer screening especially in people above age of 50. In spite of that, we very well know less than 50% of the people above age of 50, at the present time have been screened, and as far as women is concerned, for some reason there is still this myth outside that colon cancer is more common in men and then you’ll somehow notice that women, African American and Hispanic people are the one least likely to go for a colonoscopy above age of 50. That has to change.

The incidents of colon cancer in women is pretty much same as men, the risk factors are same, also in people who have family history of colon cancer or colon polyps are more susceptible to getting colon cancer and they in fact need to be screened. The screening procedures - the gold standard is still a colonoscopy. There is something called CT colonography, which is a new technique where they do a fast CAT scan of your colon. It is an evolving field and I can see that also becoming a tool for colon screening. A lot of people are already using it.

But whatever technique we use, it is very crucial that everybody above age of 50 can get colon cancer screening. It is estimated that we can reduce the incidents of colon cancer by 70% if every American above age of 50 has a colonoscopy done. Now that’s a very powerful statement and it is a fact. We have already seen that over the last 15 years there has been declining incidents of colon cancer, which is attributed to people getting colonoscopies and getting diagnosed at an early stage.

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