ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) – Doctors across Albany are advocating for Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and say it’s important for patients to be aware of information regarding the disease.
“It’s important for people to continue to get colon cancer screenings and also for even younger patients to get screened for colon cancer starting around age 45,” said, Franklin Goldwire, M.D. Gastroenterologist at Phoebe Putney Hospital.
The importance of getting screened comes from the fact patients may not experience symptoms, according to Goldwire.
“Unfortunately, what happens is that colon cancer tends not to cause a lot of symptoms until it’s really late okay, and so what people need to be aware of is that even though they aren’t having symptoms, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a problem there,” said Goldwire.
Dr. Price Corr, Specialist in General Surgery at Albany surgical and Southern Surgery Center, said that catching colon cancer early can save a life.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/X5DRUSDRBBF6JOGOSDBUSAKHQU.jpg)
“Because if we catch colon cancer early, like in the form of a little polyp, we can remove it and that’s all that we really have to have done. They don’t have to have any more surgery. They don’t have to have chemotherapy or radiation or anything like that, so early detection is the key,” he said.
Goldwire added anyone experiencing symptoms should contact their primary care physician.
“Typically weight loss, you may notice blood in the stool and you may notice a change in the way the stool looks. Those stools may become pencil-thin or more ribbon-shaped stools. Those are things to look for,” said Goldwire.
Corr is a big advocate for this month for many reasons.
“When we have any kind of awareness month, it’s to make people more alert to what’s going on around them and just kind of make you think outside of the box. Like, maybe I need to go check and I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve done a colonoscopy on somebody and we found a colon cancer and they say ‘I’m so glad I had it checked, I didn’t have any family history,’” said Corr.
In honor of Colon Cancer Awareness Month, anyone can wear light blue all month long to show support.
Copyright 2022 WALB. All rights reserved.