Coogler: Take responsibility for your own colon health

Two South Carolinians die each day of colorectal cancer, and six more are diagnosed. This cancer can occur at any age, even with no family history, and it must be caught early to be cured. A colonoscopy picks up only about 65 percent of lesions, but it is the best we have.

Your doctor will determine when you need to start and how often you need a colonoscopy, based on your family and personal medical history. For average-risk patients (no symptoms or family history), colonoscopies generally start at age 50 (earlier for African-Americans) and are repeated every 10 years.

Many more cancers would be found earlier if colonoscopies were done every five to seven years, and more people would survive. But this costs money, and physicians tell me that money is the driving factor behind much of our medical care, since insurance companies have great influence with the large medical corporations that control many medical practices. This means you must be proactive regarding your colon cancer screening.

Some doctors recommend screening colonoscopies every five years, some every seven years and some every 10 years. Some recommend other tests between colonoscopies. You must decide what you are comfortable with after talking to your doctor. If your screening is not approved by your insurance, you may have to pay, but it needs to be your choice.

For patients who cannot get a colonoscopy, the American Cancer Society and the American College of Gastroenterology recommend annual screening using the fecal immunochemical test, which only picks up more advanced lesions.

If it is not diagnosed early, colon cancer will kill you. I lost my beloved wife in March, less than four months after diagnosis. She was medically aware and had annual physicals, but colon cancer wasn’t on our radar, and her exams did not find the cancer. Talk to your doctor and ask questions to protect your own life.

There are untold demands on our primary care physicians, and insurance companies rule, so it behooves us to be proactive about our own health issues. For more information, contact USC’s Center for Colon Cancer Research, the American College of Gastroenterology or the American Cancer Society.

This story was originally published August 19, 2015 at 6:17 PM.