Sponsored - March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. A team of colorectal surgeons at MUSC Health in Columbia is urging patients, even if they’re asymptomatic, to be screened for the cancer starting at age 45.
Dr. Sid Morrison, a colorectal surgeon at MUSC Health, explains the signs and symptoms, treatments, and trends of colon cancer in recent decades. He says physicians are seeing younger patients develop the cancer, so the age for asymptomatic patients to be screened has dropped from the previously recommended 50 years to 45 years. Doctors say patients who have a family history of colon cancer should be screened even earlier.
Morrison says there is hope and earlier screenings can lead to increased survival rates.
Common symptoms patients could experience include unexplained bleeding and a change in stool. If you are experiencing symptoms, talk with your doctor.