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marches colorectal cancer awareness month that my kylie is a colorectal
surgeon at Baystate Medical Center
doctor thank you for being with us to talk about this really very important
health
issue a right off the top let let's say colon and *** cancers as I understand
it
are among the most easily preventable cancers
if you do the right thing
to catch them early that's correct German thank you for
for having me is in a very important topic this month but yes
comb colorectal cancer it's the the third most common form of cancer in the
United States
and it's a very preventable and treatable
disease so regarding prevention
the the best thing that anybody can do is at a certain age usually age 50
is to undergo colonoscopy let's talk a call and ask me a little bit
hit that age while back in put it off while we did go through and do itttt
thank goodness everything is fine but
it see people dread it sounds uncomfortable it sounds unpleasant to
have a to basically
threaded through your but in fact it's a pretty quick procedure pretty brief
and most people whether it pretty comfortably
yes absolutely the complication rates are exceedingly low
the procedure itself is usually pretty straightforward it's done by an
experience gastroenterologist usually
and the bowel preparation is usually the part of the
the whole process that people dread the most
but I'm usually just have to drink liquids today before
follow all the instructions on the bowel preparation and
I'm this sedation that we usually give is very well tolerated Pieper
virtually asleep for the whole procedure really quite pleasant to be honest with
it
as it turned out at least in my case a there's been significant success
in recent years colonoscopy in screenings are working
colon cancer rates down 30 percent the past decade in people over 50
debts to the colon cancer down about 3 percent a year
socially multiplying again in the last decade
that's gotta be a good feeling to someone
who treats this at the serious stage to see this happening
yes it is indeed and I think it now really signifies than
early detection and prevention of colon cancer a colonoscopy works
polyps I'm are benign entities
that can be safely removed endoscopically and if they're
remove early that preclude somebody from having to undergo surgery
and I'm after all 5 detecting any lesion
early you then are preventing yourself from
a late detection which in many cases can lead to much
for the problem sam rolled let second IEEE already mentioned really age 50 is
probably good marker
did get yourself an and and get a colonoscopy
let's talk about some of the other people who perhaps should be especially
mindful
getting screened if there's a family or personal history it's important correct
that's correct if there's a
first-degree family relative that has a history of colon cancer
if they were diagnosed before age 55
a family member should have a colonoscopy at the age of
at least 40 I'm if the person
was diagnosed a greater than 55 years of age would be
fifty years or or 10 years the
less than the and the age that the person was diagnosed
so there are some at risk groups people have long-term inflammatory bowel
disease are
are at increased risk and there are also us
a few some types of patients who have inherited genetic syndromes that are at
much higher risk for colon cancer but
in general the those numbers are of patients are very small it's mostly
mass braddock average risk people that get colon cancer
in reading up for this I was interested to find
there are some behavioral items that really
be impacted obesity in and certainly a problem in this country
smoking heavy alcohol use and a lack of exercise and to some extent that almost
defines
way a lot of americans love today all those lifestyle issues
increase your risk for colon *** cancer is that correct
yes there are many things that that can increase QE
increase the association with colorectal cancer there aren't any specific things
that absolutely cause our
but also a diet heavy in fact and also on red meat
I'm while not actually causative they have been associated with increased risk
of
Kong cancer and while
as I understand that the medical evidence is in perhaps as solid
is someone like yourself would like it to be right it appears
low-fat high-fiber diet fruits vegetables whole grains
we know it's good for us anyway but in this case especially
it appears to be helpful for the bowel system is it fair to say yes absolutely
I I always recommend my patience to increase the fiber intake in their diet
is very hard to get all the fiber you need every day by
food alone so many cases people the a fiber supplement
and a certainly a diet healthy and I'm
fruits and vegetables is also very important
let's talk about your end of the treatment if you will we've talked about
testing and prevention
if there's a problem found it's the colorectal surgeon
who is called in at that point and I i think
anybody can be concerned about surgery this is serious
surgery if cancer is found though there there are great advances there is one
minimally invasive treatments now
it is not something to be feared
no it isn't in many cases we can offer a wide range of surgical options for
patients
I'm the standard approach should be a laparoscopic resection out that affected
segment of the column
and I'm generally speaking patients
recover very quickly rapidly after these operations
i'm for instance I'm other types of options are available for patients with
*** cancer
if it's a low stage this particularly isn't may be amenable to removal
through minimally invasive direction through the *** actually and I
haven't
land the patient will not need to undergo a a major abdominal operation
but in general he and Obama laproscopic procedure can be
perform well that Mike I legal rep to surgeon Baystate Medical Center
thanks for spending some time with us in misled a helpful information about colon
*** cancer
my pleasure thank you