Dr. Usman Shah, who’s a medical oncologist at Overlook Medical Heart, section 1 and gastrointestinal oncology medical director, emphasised in an interview with CURE that colorectal most cancers screening presents two key advantages: early detection and early prevention.
Colonoscopy can detect colon and rectal cancers at an earlier stage, enhancing prognosis, and may stop most cancers by eradicating benign polyps earlier than they flip malignant — a course of that sometimes takes seven to 10 years. Whereas different noninvasive screening strategies can detect most cancers early, they don’t present the preventive advantage of polyp removing.
“If we are able to intervene on that polyp with eradicating it via a colonoscopy, we are able to truly lower the danger of that most cancers ever creating within the first place. The colonoscopy can serve each as early detection however truly prevention as nicely,” he stated.
Transcript
How does earlier detection via colonoscopy or different screening strategies have an effect on therapy choices and long-term outcomes for sufferers?
Yeah, that is a extremely vital query to just be sure you know people perceive. After we take into consideration screening, there are two potential advantages that we take note of. One is, in fact, early detection. For those who can diagnose colon most cancers or rectal most cancers at an earlier stage, the prognosis is that a lot better.
However the different factor to additionally know is, once we take into consideration colonoscopy, it will possibly serve not simply as early detection, however early prevention, or prevention on the whole. And the explanation for that’s most colorectal cancers will start as a benign polyp that can finally have the danger of turning into most cancers over about seven to 10 years.
If we are able to intervene on that polyp with eradicating it via a colonoscopy, we are able to truly lower the danger of that most cancers ever creating within the first place. The colonoscopy can serve each as early detection however truly prevention as nicely. However there are definitely different much less invasive or noninvasive strategies that will nonetheless function early detection however not essentially prevention.
Transcript has been edited for readability and conciseness.
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