Welcome back in next month is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.
And even though there's a test for it, there can,
there can be life saving people avoid it.
This afternoon, we have Doctor
Ahmad with us from mercy Health to talk more about colorectal cancer and the steps
we can be taking to prevent it.
Uh First of all, let's let's go over what exactly is colorectal cancer?
So then uh colorectal cancer. Uh colon is a term we use to mention
large bow
in in medicine
and it is a large major part of our gastrointestinal tract or digestive tract.
And rectum is the last six inches of that colon or the large intestine.
So,
malignant tumors involving both colon and
rectum are collectively called colorectal cancers.
And
a polyp is what I know because I've had a couple of them.
So they go looking for polyps and try to clip them off because
are those probably AAA thing something that could develop into a real situation?
Yeah, polyp is just to make a layman understand it's like a,
it's like a protuberance or, or a bump if you will.
And it kind of grows from a few millimeters to the size of a golf ball.
And most of time, these polyps are asymptomatic,
but occasionally they can ulcerate and bleed can cause bleeding.
The important thing is Dan,
that these polyps are the budding grounds for colorectal cancer.
They need, they need to come out, like in your case, they removed it.
So they prevent you from getting colon cancer.
Do we know what causes colorectal
cancer?
That's an interesting question.
We don't know completely uh overall what causes cancer because
if you know the exact cause we would remove that.
But
in terms of colon cancer, there's a lot of research has been done
and we know a few facts. The fact is that polyps will turn into cancer.
That is number one,
we know there are certain genetic mutations which
are involved in causation of colon cancer.
And there are some personal attributes, people who are at risk,
they can be a case for colorectal cancer.
Is it hereditary? Possibly?
Yes, indeed.
There's a lot of family association about one third of
the colorectal cancer are related to genes in families.
It's funny we find things out like that because uh breast cancer can sometimes go in,
in a family with all the sisters, the mom and so forth
and colorectal cancer can, can cross that whole family thing.
That is true.
As a matter of fact,
there are some genes in breast cancer with cross react with the colorectal cancer.
So it's sort of a side.
When we hear the story about somebody having a breast cancer in the family,
as well as the colorectal cancer,
we kind of screen them with a high index of suspicion.
And how common is it?
Do you think colorectal is the most common gastrointestinal cancer?
According to who
it is the third most common cancer in the world.
And unfortunately, the third most common cause of death uh in people and disease,
obviously.
So, uh it is estimated then that this year only this year in 2024
about a staggering number of 150,000 people
will be diagnosed newly with colon cancer.
And unfortunately, 50,000 of them will die of colorectal cancer.
It's unfortunate because this type of cancer
can be easily prevented by just prevention,
screening colonoscopies,
the polyps that they might find they could take what months years they grow rapidly.
So if it's caught early,
you're good.
That is true.
Polyps take many years to grow,
generally from a few millimeters to a centimeter to a big,
bigger size to turn into cancer. It may take 8 to 10 years. In general.
Certain polyps grow faster than others. But that's the general adom
which are a pre cancerous polyp. That's the rate are some people more at risk.
Do you think? Absolutely.
People who are,
have a family history for colorectal cancer
or have family history for colorectal polyps.
They are high risk.
General population is at high risk because most of the colon cancer are sporadic
people who have inflammatory bowel disease,
they have high risk for colorectal cancer.
There are certain genetic mutations and familial
adenomatous polyps
is another condition called H and
PC. They are high risk
and we talked about certain personal attributes, people who smoke cigarettes
or drink a lot of alcohol, even moderate amount of alcohol. They are high risk.
People who are obese or overweight, they are not physically active.
And in
you would imagine a diet plays a major role in colorectal cancers,
digestive disease, cancer.
So red meat has been blamed as a causative agent.
Uh
Any kind of meat, lunch,
meats or, or, or hot dogs in particular,
they are labeled as high risk factor for getting colon cancer.
So avoid as much as possible
before we run out of time here. The screening of course, is very simple.
It,
the problem is the prepping for it is the the
drinking of the liquid that makes you cleanse out.
So it, so you can do your job. That's the toughest part about it. Are there any
progressions in making that an easier thing?
It's the most undesirable part of the colonoscopy?
I I agree with you.
Uh But uh it has come a long way, Dan
uh we have split those prep, we have a prep given with Gatorade.
So it is better tolerated. Still not a walk in the park.
Yeah.
Uh we just need to make sure we get the word out and get people.
It, it's, it's, it's not that bad
once it's over with, it's like, is that all there is?
I had mine done two weeks ago.
So if that makes somebody feel better and get into screening it is what it is,
folks get screening it is the most preventable cancer,
we can take care of that. It's easy
and this is the only way we can reduce the incidence of colon cancer disease and death
doctor. Thank you for coming in.
My pleasure.