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Everyone is at risk for colon cancer and the risk increases after age 50. Colon cancer is the 2nd leading cause of cancer death in the United States. This is why routine screening is so important!
Symptoms
- Blood in or on stool
- stomach pain (aches, cramps etc) that do not go away
- unexplained weight loss
Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Family History of Colon Cancer and/or colon polyps increase the risk for developing Colorectal Cancer.
Recommendations
- Colonoscopy every 10 years
- Fecal occult blood testing-FOBT (testing for blood in feces) every year
- Fecal immunochemical testing-FIT every year
- Sigmoidoscopy every 5 years ( if done with FIT, every 3 years)
