Bulls raise awareness about colon cancer

By Melchizedek Maquiso

To observe Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, several health and patient support groups and the Belleville Bulls have collaborated to raise awareness about the disease in the Yardmen Arena Wednesday night.

The awareness campaign underlies the importance of having early detection especially that at-home test kits are readily available

“What we’re looking to do today is to try to get people to be aware – to get them to self-check.  We want people to be aware that colon cancer is a big problem and that we’re offering the home kits to them that they can take home and actually just send in themselves.  It doesn’t require using a doctor at all,” said Shannon Del Grosso of the Hastings and Prince Edward County Health Unit.

Del Grosso is specifically referring to the Fecal Occult Blood Test (FOBT).  According to Cancer Care Ontario, the FOBT is the most widely available test for screening for colorectal cancer that can be done at home.  Samples of a person’s stool are taken at three different   times within a 10-day period.  Once completed, the samples can be sent in a postage-paid addressed envelope for laboratory analysis.

“We really like people to know the importance of being screened early,” said sisters Carol and Elizabeth Risto, whose parents both died from the disease.  The sisters are volunteers for the Colorectal Cancer Support Group.

Dr. Hugh Langley of the Southeast Regional Cancer Program in Kingston discussed specifics.

“We know that colon cancer, when found early, is easily treated.  But when found late, when a patient comes in with symptoms or bleeding, the treatment is much more complex and less effective,” said Langley.

Langley added: “There is a special group of people that have had a brother or sister, mother or father with colorectal cancer in those patients in the program should start colonoscopy – an examination with a tube on the colon at 10 years younger than when the relative got the disease.

“So if a 50-year old man has a brother that developed colorectal cancer at 60, he should start colonoscopy.  But for most people, it is the stool test every two years.“

According to the Canadian Cancer Society, FOBT should be started when the person reaches 50 years old.

Statistics from Cancer Care Ontario indicate that an estimated 8,100 Ontarians are diagnosed with colorectal cancer and 3,300 die from the disease each year.  The cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths next to lung cancer in the province.