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Colon Screening
The CDC recommends men and women age 45 to 75 be screened regularly for colorectal cancer. Here, Dr. Catherine Pechon of St. Tammany Physicians Network discusses how it works and how you can schedule yours.
Select the best option below or use the MyChart app to schedule a visit with your doctor to talk about setting up a colon cancer screening today. Don’t have a doctor? We can help with that, too. Just call (985) 898-4001.
There are three main types of colon screenings. Talk with your physician about which is right for you.
The current gold standard of colorectal screenings, a colonoscopy involves a direct visual inspection of the large intestine through use of a fiber-optic camera. It is the most sensitive and accurate test for colorectal cancer. During the procedure, a doctor can find and remove most polyps and some cancers.
FIT, which stands for fecal immunochemical test, uses antibodies to detect blood in a patient’s stool. It is an at-home test in which the patient collects a stool sample and sends it to a lab, which sends the results to the patient’s physician for analysis. In healthy patients, it is conducted once a year.
Advertised under name brand Cologuard – featuring commercials with a talking box – this is an at-home test similar to a standard FIT test but also looks for the presence of altered DNA in the stool that could be a warning sign. In healthy patients, it is conducted once every three years.
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