Read up on Colon and rectal cancer screening treatment options at Consumer Reports Health.

Colon and rectal cancer screening

Key points about treatments

Cancer screening means looking for signs of cancer in healthy people. The idea is to find cancers before they have started to cause any symptoms. This means treatment can be started early.

There are several tests that can be used to screen for colon and rectal cancer (also called colorectal cancer or bowel cancer). These can be used alone or in combination.

Most people being screened won't have cancer. So it's important that the benefits of having a screening test outweigh the risk of any harm. That's why it's important to know which tests are safest for screening.

Key points about screening tests for colon and rectal cancer

Screening using fecal occult blood testing helps to reduce deaths from colon and rectal cancer.
Screening using flexible sigmoidoscopy may stop people getting colon or rectal cancer.
Colonoscopy is a very good test for diagnosing cancer. But there's not enough research to say whether it's a good screening test. And we don't know whether the risk of harm from having this test outweighs the benefits.
There hasn't been enough research on the other tests to show how well they work for screening.

This information was last updated on Jan 09, 2009

This information is for educational use only, and is not a substitute for prompt professional medical advice. Readers should always consult a physician or other professional for advice and treatment.
© BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2009. All rights reserved.

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