A colonoscopy has two main purposes:
One purpose is to check on certain symptoms or conditions that your doctor would be concerned about.
The second purpose is to screen your colon for colorectal cancer.
A colonoscopy can be used to see problems in the colon in patients who have a variety of serious symptoms.
Some of these symptoms can include:
If you show signs of any of these symptoms you should talk to your doctor.
Colorectal cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the US. Colonoscopies have proven to significantly decrease the incidence of colorectal cancer.
If the lining of your colon contains polyps there is a chance that these small growths of tissue can turn into cancer.
A colonoscopy makes it very easy for your doctor to find and remove these polyps early on before they have a chance to become cancer.
These other tests can be divided into three groups: "stool based", "direct visualization", and "radiological".
Stool based tests include the guaiac-based fecal occult blood test (gFOBT), fecal immunochemical test (FIT), and stool DNA test.
Other test options include a flexible sigmoidoscopy, which is an example of a direct visualization test.
A computed tomographic colonoscopy is an example of a radiological test.
Depending on the types of polyps found in your colon, some types have a higher chance of turning into cancer than others.
Hyperplastic polyps are a benign type of polyp which means that they have very little chance of turning into cancer. However, they still need to be removed and examined under the microscope, which will determine if these polyps are hyperplastic.
Even if you have hyperplastic polyps, it is still very important to have a colonoscopy every 10 years.
Certain conditions can lead you to have a higher risk of colorectal cancer. These can include Lynch syndrome, which is an inherited genetic condition that leads to an 80% risk of colon cancer over your lifetime.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) involving the colon and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) are other diseases that can increase your risk of colon cancer. If you have both IBD and PSC, you have about a 30-fold higher risk of developing colon cancer.
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