March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, and the American Cancer Society urges everyone age 50 or older to be examined every five years.
Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death for both men and women in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. This year, colorectal cancer will take the lives of more than 50,000 Americans.
In fact, half of all colon cancer deaths each year could be prevented in the United States if everyone age 50 and older got screened.
Colorectal cancer also is the third most commonly diagnosed form of cancer in the nation for both men and women.
Early detection allows doctors to remove polyps before they become cancerous, therefore preventing the disease altogether.
Some colon cancer facts include:
? In 2013, an estimated 143,000 new cases of colorectal cancer will be diagnosed in the United States. And, in Michigan alone, 13 people every day will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
? Colorectal cancer (commonly referred to as colon cancer) almost always starts with a polyp ? a small growth on the lining of the colon or rectum.
? Blacks have the highest death rate from colon cancer of any racial or ethnic group in the United States.
? Colon cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in Hispanic/Latino men and women. Continued...
? Early colon cancer usually causes no symptoms and can be detected by available colon cancer screening tests. However, as colon cancer progresses, the disease might cause symptoms including: Changes in bowel habits, a feeling of needing to have a bowel movement that doesn?t go away even after having a bowel movement, bleeding from the rectum or blood in the stool, cramping or gnawing stomach pain and weakness and fatigue.
Source: http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2013/03/16/news/doc5144df6e3fb5c211734393.txt
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