Colorectal Cancer Risk and the Role of Screening
More Programs and Publications Featuring Dr. Fola May
In this program:
What impact has colorectal cancer screening had? Dr. Fola May from UCLA Health explains how the introduction of screening has changed colorectal cancer rates and how the survival rate varies by cancer stage.
Transcript
Broderick Rodell:
So what role does screening play in preventing colorectal cancer, and how can people lower their risk?
Dr. Fola May:
Yeah, so one of the major reasons why we have decreasing rates of colorectal cancer in the United States since the 1980s, is because we started screening for colorectal cancer. Prior to that, colorectal cancer was something we diagnosed, it wasn't something that we prevented, but with the introduction of screening tests in the United States, mostly in the 1990s, we've had a precipitous drop in the number of cases we see every year and the number of people who die from the disease. I mentioned earlier that colorectal cancer starts in polyps, which are small outgrowths in the lining of the colon or the rectum, they look like little pimples, they look innocent, but over time, over seven to 10 years, they can develop abnormal cells that continue to divide and grow and grow and grow, and that's where colorectal cancers originate. So the basis of screening is two-fold, one is prevention, we can find those polyps and remove them by a colonoscopy before they have a chance to grow into a cancer. And the second phase or the second modality in which the screening works is that if you...unfortunately, have had a polyp that has progressed into a cancer by screening, we can find it early enough to take it out so that you survive the disease.
We talked a little bit earlier about the stages, stage I being early colorectal cancer and stage IV late colorectal cancer. I like to remind my patients that we want to get you screened in time because if I can diagnose your colorectal cancer at stage I, you have a 90 percent chance of surviving the disease. But if we wait a long time and that polyp progresses into an advanced cancer, and we don't diagnose your colorectal cancer into stage IV, then your survival is only 11 to 15 percent, so you can see how important the screening is and how important it is to do it in a timely manner.
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