Is It Time for Your Colonoscopy?

March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month in the United States, so it's the perfect opportunity to talk about screening.

Nearly 160,000 Americans are diagnosed with colorectal cancer each year, and more alarmingly, the disease is the second most common cause of cancer death in the country.

One of the best ways to stay a step ahead of this dangerous cancer is through regular screening with a colonoscopy. 

As part of the wide range of medical services at LaSante Health Center, our multidisciplinary team includes board-certified gastroenterologist Steven Guttmann, MD, who provides colonoscopy screenings.

Here’s what our team wants you to know.

How a colonoscopy screens for colorectal cancer

Let’s first take a look at how we can screen so effectively for colorectal cancers with a colonoscopy. During this procedure, we thread a camera into your rectum and then into your colon to check for any abnormalities. 

By abnormalities, we’re largely referring to polyps, which are tissue growths in the lining of your lower digestive tract. Polyps are quite common and, in most cases, harmless. That said, they’re also responsible for most colorectal cancers, so you’re better off without them.

If we spot any polyps during your colonoscopy, we remove them on the spot, and then we study them further under a microscope to look for any abnormal or cancerous cells. 

When to start screening for colorectal cancer

Now let’s get into when you should start screening and whether it’s time for your colonoscopy. The short answer is that for anyone of average risk, we should perform your first colonoscopy when you reach the age of 45. (We’ll get into risk factors in a minute.)

If we find nothing of concern, we will likely tell you that your next screening should be in 10 years. If we do find something concerning, such as the presence of a large polyp or abnormal cells, we will likely want to screen more regularly to keep an eye on things.

Understanding your risks for colorectal cancer

There’s a trend in colorectal cancers that we find alarming — it’s developing more in younger people (under the age of 50). This explains why we want to start screening at 45 instead of 50, but people who are at higher risk should screen even earlier.

Some of the key risk factors that we look at include:

• Having inflammatory bowel disease, which affects around 3 million Americans
• A personal history of gastrointestinal disease
• A family history of colorectal cancer (1 in 3 people with colorectal cancer have a family history of the disease)
• Being obese
• Eating a diet heavy on meat and light on fruits and vegetables
• Smoking
• Excessive drinking

This list isn’t complete, and it’s something we should sit down and review together. Once we have a better idea about your medical history and habits, we can come up with a more detailed colonoscopy schedule.

To figure out how you can best stay one step ahead of colorectal cancer, we invite you to book an appointment online or call us at our Brooklyn, New York, clinic at 718-355-8616. We also welcome walk-ins during our hours of operation. 

Our team proudly serves the Flatbush and East Flatbush, Crown Heights, Park Slope, Little Haiti, Little Caribbean, and Prospect Lefferts Gardens communities.