Adults 45 and older who are overweight, African American, or suffer from high blood pressure or high cholesterol, are encouraged to attend. Outside the Foggy Bottom metro station, across the street from GW Hospital. No registration necessary. Rain or shine. Colorectal Cancer Screenings Ongoing Approximately 130,000 new cases of colorectal cancer will be diagnosed this year and 56,000 people will die from the disease.
Colorectal cancer strikes men and women with almost equal frequency often with no symptoms.
A flexible sigmoidoscopy test is recommended every five years. A Colonoscopy is recommended for those 50 and older every ten years. A Colonoscopy is a more comprehensive test, allowing a physician to view the entire colon. Both tests are done as outpatient procedures and involve inserting a flexible scope into the rectum to detect polyps or abnormalities. Those with personal or family histories of colorectal cancer should talk to their doctors about more frequent evaluations.