Of the 18 million French people aged 50 to 74 invited each year to practice colorectal cancer screening, only 5 million agree to carry out this examination at home. In an attempt to overcome this reluctance, gastroenterologists are organizing an open house today, on the occasion of the 7th Colon Cancer Prevention and Screening Day. Main objectives: to find out if you have any risk factors and to play down the screening test, three weeks before the arrival on the market of a new immunoassay, simpler and more reliable.
“This new test has a sensitivity 3 to 4 times greater than the current one. And it should be better accepted because it requires only a single sample from a stool, instead of two samples from three consecutive separate stools,” said the Dr Pierre Guibert, digestive oncologist at the Léon Bérard Center, in Lyon.
The 3rd most common cancer
With an average of 42,000 new cases per year and more than 17,500 deaths, colorectal cancer remains the 3rd most frequent cancer in France and the 2nd deadliest. However, paradoxically, it is a cancer which in a very large majority of cases cures if it is detected in time “Systematic screening can detect a polyp at a precancerous stage, of small size or at an initial stage of cancer , without ganglion. Survival is then 95% five years later. When the cancer is discovered at stage 4, metastatic, it is only 5% “, adds Dr Pierre Guibert. For the doctor, the test is all the more important as 80% of colorectal cancers affect men and women who have no particular risk factor.
A web TV dedicated to colon cancer
Note that on the occasion of this day dedicated to colorectal cancer screening, the Merck Serono laboratory is committed alongside the France Côlon association to raise awareness and inform the general public through the realization a Web TVwhich offers interviews with experts and patients, videos and a comic book to download, to better understand the disease.
Find out here the list of gastroenterologists participants in the free screening operation.
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