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It's like manned space shots versus robot probes -- Nothing beats experts on-site! |
Posted on 01/18/2005 7:33:03 AM PST by JusticeTalion
Potentially cancerous growths missed 95 percent of the time
PHILADELPHIA - A common screening test failed to detect potentially cancerous colon growths 95 percent of the time, falsely reassuring patients and doctors, according to a new study.
Researchers found that the digital, in-office test on stool samples was not as reliable as a six-sample test given to patients to do on their own at home — although even that test detected potentially cancerous growths less than 24 percent of the time.
"What we found is that it was pretty worthless," Dr. David Lieberman, one of the study's authors, said of the in-office test. "It's a wake-up call that we shouldn't be relying on this test."
God bless our troops wherever they may be.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
COLONOSCOPY - the full bus trip to the end of the colon is probably the ONLY way to detect problems accurately!
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It's like manned space shots versus robot probes -- Nothing beats experts on-site! |
"COLONOSCOPY - the full bus trip to the end of the colon is probably the ONLY way to detect problems accurately!"
I agree. I just had this procedure a week ago. The worst part is the period leading up to the procedure.
"Some way"?
There is already a fantastic way to detect colon cancer: Colonoscopy.
Colonoscopy can detect pre-cancerous polyps and remove them years before they ever turn into cancer.
So, get your butt (pun intended) over to your surgeon's office and make an appointment for one.
This disease just killed the CEO of McDonald's and he was only 44 years old.
Ditto on the prep thing. Those drugs they give you during the procedure are sweet. Too bad you have to have THAT done to get them;)
My grandmother suffered for decades with hemmroids. Would not go to the doctor. She was an RN. Treated herself weekly with colonics.
She died of colon cancer in 1980. 74 years old. She should have known better. We all need more fiber in our diets, fresh fruits and vegetables.
Eat a balanced diet, limiting too much red meat. Eat yogurt with the natural cultures in it, and go in for that test if you have a family history earlier than 50.
My father died in 1994 at the age of 67 of colorectal cancer. He would have survived if he had taken the warning signs seriously and seen a doctor long before he finally did. Colon cancer takes a very long time to evolve. Many years in some cases.
YES, the pre-op IS the worst....I'm usually calling someone at 4am to tell them I can't drink ALL THAT STUFF!!!
"Eat a balanced diet"
A daily portion of food from the cabbage family is important as well. Eat your broccoli.
Uugh! Please don't remind me..........
I also had difficulties getting my blood pressure and heart rate under control prior to the procedure.
They finally had to knock me out with a bit of goofy juice.They said that many men had the same reaction to having a camera stuffed up the particular orifice in question.
I've had two....and never stayed awake for either of them....I don't think it's a "man" thing.....
Hubble telescope up the bum.....sounds pretty advanced. Where are the diagnostic beds, scans that detect EVERYTHING, right down to blood gas and toxicology? Seems to me that MRI has advanced pretty far, why not, with the computing and sensor advances made in the last 20 years, have a device that CAN detect everything.
< tinfoil beanie> It almost seems that the medical machine is more interested in treatment than in cure < /tinfiol beanie off>
Top sends
The Gastroenterologist removed 5 relatively small polyps, nascent colon cancers.
This is what they're talking about trying to pick up. Unless the polyps are bleeding, the office test is no help.
I've had 'em before, and know I need the full bore (!) test about every three to five years.
I suspect you are correct.:-)
YES, the pre-op IS the worst....I'm usually calling someone at 4am to tell them I can't drink ALL THAT STUFF!!!
I got it down with Diet 7-up; eight ounces then the stuff and swish it up real good. Not too bad. You do this six times altogether. Then the fun begins.
The procedure itself was totally painless. I'm wheeled into the operating room and am talking to the nurse and then the lights go out. The next thing I am in recovery. There is no pain nor any sense of time at all. Then I'm back home shortly thereafter. They did find a polyp but don't think it is serious. My follow-up is tomorrow. I'm 61 and this was my first one; long overdue.
I personally have to stay away from that after having my gall bladder out. The doc told me no broccolli, cauliflower or brussel sprouts.
I still have some, but I eat small portions.
Well, once such perfection is achieved, the inventor will be richer than Bill Gates. :-)
Radiology is experimenting with "virtual colonoscopy" but it has a long way to go before it can compete with a fiber optic, color colonoscopy unit that makes the "hairs" of the terry cloth towel on the prep table look like giant cloth worms on the TV monitor.
< tinfoil beanie> It almost seems that the medical machine is more interested in treatment than in cure < /tinfiol beanie off>
Some diseases, like some infectious diseases, you can pre=emptively "cure" by vaccination, driving the pathogen to extinction, etc. For other things such as cancer, science is not there yet. Inside all of us, there is a genetic code that almost guarantees we will be dead by 100 years just like dogs are almost guaranteed to be dead by age 20.
Something's going to get you.
Colonoscopy, however, is a cure. My colonoscopy found a single benign polyp that could have developed into the colon cancer I was going to have in the year 2014.
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