PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — In light of colorectal cancer awareness month, the American Cancer Society urges adults to get screened.
A recent report showed that over 152,000 new cases of colorectal cancer are looming in the United States this year, and as with all cancers, early detection is key. Rick Rivers, a Williamstown, New Jersey resident, is a colon cancer survivor. For him, getting screened early was paramount.
“You have to take that extra step and make that appointment or make sure you go to like even your annual checkups and kind of put that into an additional check test along with cholesterol and all those other tests,” he said.
Rivers battled a variety of health issues since the age of 18, so he was always on top of all his health screenings. He was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 31.
“I have a colonoscopy every year that pretty much monitors to make sure that there are no new recurrences of the cancer, and to date, there hasn't been so I've been lucky in that regard,” he said.
Rivers is part of a growing demographic of black men who have received this diagnosis, and the mortality rates follow the same pattern.
“We do know that in the African American community, this is a very common cancer unfortunately, and that we want to get patients screened starting at age 45, or sooner,” said Evelyn Robles-Rodriguez, an oncology nurse at MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper.
The ACS recommends screening for colon cancer at age 45 — that’s up from 50 with the rise in cases among younger adults. According to the organization, colorectal cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men and fourth in women.
Robles-Rodriguez says early-stage colorectal cancer doesn’t always show symptoms.
“As the cancer grows, and people can start having things like blood in their stool, they can see blood in the toilet or in the tissue paper, that can be changes in the size of the stools with the stools becoming smaller,” she said. “There can also be changes in the type of bowel habits you have.”
She says it’s important to know family history and focus more on preventive measures, such as getting regular screenings and staying on track with healthy lifestyle habits.
For more information on colorectal cancer, visit the American Cancer Society’s website.