March is Colon Cancer Awareness Month
Posted Mar 3, 2016 10:31:36 AM.
Last Updated Mar 4, 2016 12:48:23 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s Colon Cancer Awareness Month and a local organization has partnered with Cancer Care Ontario to invite eligible men to ‘Call the Shots on Colon Cancer’ and get screened with a simple take-home test.
Waterloo Wellington Regional Cancer Program is participating in the campaign and promoting the fecal occult blood test (FOBT), which they say is painless and can be done at home.
Cheryl Shoemaker with WWRCP tells 570 News about the initiative.
“Since it is awareness month we’re really trying to get ahead of the game and get people to participate in colorectal cancer screening– and they’re specifically targeting men aged 55 to 65 years old and are also looking at a hockey-themed campaign.”
Shoemaker says colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men and the third leading cause of cancer
deaths in women in Ontario, but is highly treatable when caught early.
“We know that Colon Cancer is not something that is typical conversation at the dinner table– it’s one of those things people tend to be reserved about. That’s one of the reasons why there is the ‘Call the Shots on Colon Cancer’ campaign because we know that men are more likely to be under-screened than women, and at that 55-65 age range because it increases the likelihood of detecting screen-relevant lesions as compared to younger ages.”
She added that if they are able to get people engaged in cancer screenings at a younger screen-eligible age that hopefully it will increase people’s participating in the colon cancer check program going forward.
“Cancer Care Ontario actually recommends that men and women between 50 and 74 get screened for colon cancer with an FOBT test every two years.”
Shoemaker added that the WWRCP will be set-up at the Old Timer Hockey Tournament at RIM Park in Waterloo on Tuesday, March 22 to educate the public and promote screenings.
For more information about how you can ‘Call the Shots on Colon Cancer’, visit www.coloncancer.ca/colon.
People without a healthcare provider can get an FOBT kit by contacting Telehealth Ontario at 1-866-828-9213 and more information is available at www.ontario.ca/coloncancercheck.
