Colorectal Cancer

The frustrating thing about colorectal cancer is that more than 90 percent of the deaths it causes could be prevented by proper screening, said William Mahood, an Abington gastroenterologist. Unfortunately, only about 25 percent of the people who should be screened each year for the disease are getting tested - and it shows in the nation's mortality statistics. Colorectal cancers kill more than 56,000 people each year, according to the American Cancer Society. Only a little more than one-third of colorectal cancers are found at an early, localized stage.

1Colorectal cancer (cancer of the colon and rectum) is the second-leading cancer killer in the United States. 2Colon cancer is an equal opportunity disease, affecting men and women of all racial and ethnic groups and socio-economic backgrounds. 3Colon cancer is most often found in people older than 50, but some people may get the disease at a younger age, especially those with genetic predispositions. 4About 60 percent of colorectal cancer deaths could be prevented with regular screenings.

No one likes having a colonoscopy - a big reason why the colon cancer screening is underused. Nonetheless, growing research suggests that older folks are having unnecessary colonoscopies. The latest study of routine colonoscopies among people over 70 found that nearly a quarter were getting "potentially inappropriate" tests, based on U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines. Those guidelines say that people at average risk of colon cancer should have a colonoscopy once a decade starting at age 50, and stop at age 75. The rationale is that the disease usually progresses slowly, so people near the end of their lives are unlikely to live longer with early detection and treatment.

A cancer-imaging agent developed by Cytogen Corp. has received marketing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. OncoScint CR/OV, a diagnostic product for colorectal and ovarian cancer, is the first monoclonal, antibody-based, cancer-imaging agent approved in the United States, the Princeton biopharmaceutical company said in its announcement yesterday. OncoScint was licensed by the FDA "for use in patients with known ovarian or colorectal cancer in whom recurrent or metastatic disease is suspected," the agency said in a statement.

As Maria Grasso sees it, people are dying because people aren't talking. So she is talking. " 'Have you had a colonoscopy?' I work that into every conversation," said Grasso, of Mount Laurel, who organized the fifth annual "Get Your Rear in Gear" race and walk in Fairmount Park on Sunday to benefit colorectal cancer research and treatment. Her father and grandfather died of it. Embarrassment, she said, often keeps people from talking about symptoms and from getting a colonoscopy, the test used to detect the nation's second-most fatal cancer.

A 40-foot-long, 4-foot-high colon was moved into Philadelphia's JFK Plaza yesterday, beckoning the curious to crawl inside for a peek. The humongous model of the large intestine is on a 20-city tour to educate people about colorectal cancer testing and prevention. "I'm scared of the cancer," said city worker Shirley Palmer-Towns, 32, after she inched through the C-shaped bowel on her hands and knees, past plastic mock-ups of diverticulosis, polyps, cancerous growths and hemorrhoids.

AN INGENIOUS PLAN Someday, you may be asked to show some genes for ID. The Defense Department is studying the possibility of using "DNA dog tags" to identify GIs killed in combat or accidents. The metal dog tags U.S. military personnel now wear around their necks often are lost in violent deaths. Under the new system, blood samples would be stored so that GIs could be identified by their DNA. THE OPERATIVE THEORY So far, so good for orthopedic surgeons. Amid the furor over doctors' getting AIDS from patients and vice versa, tests by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control found only two such surgeons infected with the virus - neither one on the job. But, since the tests were voluntary, the CDC warns that the rate might be higher if orthopedic surgeons - considered to be at high risk for HIV transmission because of their intense work with blood, tissue and bone - knew they were infected and chose not to participate.

What if I told you of a great way to lose five pounds in 24 hours and be applauded by the medical community and all those who love you? You'll feel great afterward, learn important information about yourself, and take away color glossies of your experience. Now that I have your attention, I'm talking about my colonoscopy. While I admit I gained most of the weight back, it was a wonderful feeling to see digits on the scale that were reminiscent of my college days, even for a brief amount of time.

Question: A friend of ours had a bad leg clot (deep vein thrombosis, or DVT). What surprised me is that he has cirrhosis of the liver. I thought that people with cirrhosis have bleeding problems. Can you tell me how he could get a clot? Answer: You're correct that folks who have severe cirrhotic liver damage have clotting problems due to an inability of a damaged liver to make adequate proteins necessary for proper clotting to occur, a decreased number of platelets (clot cells), and an impairment in the function of existing platelets.

In a program being described as the first of its kind in this country, HMO- PA/NJ and the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Northeast Philadelphia have launched a large-scale screening project that will offer routine, periodic testing for breast cancer and cancer of the colon and rectum to more than 100,000 subscribers to the health-maintenance organization. Aimed at early detection and treatment, the screening program is expected to decrease the death rate from breast cancer by more than 30 percent among women in the program and should greatly increase the detection of colorectal cancer in men and women in its early, most-curable stages, according to Fox Chase cancer specialists.

As Maria Grasso sees it, people are dying because people aren't talking. So she is talking. " 'Have you had a colonoscopy?' I work that into every conversation," said Grasso, of Mount Laurel, who organized the fifth annual "Get Your Rear in Gear" race and walk in Fairmount Park on Sunday to benefit colorectal cancer research and treatment. Her father and grandfather died of it. Embarrassment, she said, often keeps people from talking about symptoms and from getting a colonoscopy, the test used to detect the nation's second-most fatal cancer.

No one likes having a colonoscopy - a big reason why the colon cancer screening is underused. Nonetheless, growing research suggests that older folks are having unnecessary colonoscopies. The latest study of routine colonoscopies among people over 70 found that nearly a quarter were getting "potentially inappropriate" tests, based on U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines. Those guidelines say that people at average risk of colon cancer should have a colonoscopy once a decade starting at age 50, and stop at age 75. The rationale is that the disease usually progresses slowly, so people near the end of their lives are unlikely to live longer with early detection and treatment.

1Colorectal cancer (cancer of the colon and rectum) is the second-leading cancer killer in the United States. 2Colon cancer is an equal opportunity disease, affecting men and women of all racial and ethnic groups and socio-economic backgrounds. 3Colon cancer is most often found in people older than 50, but some people may get the disease at a younger age, especially those with genetic predispositions. 4About 60 percent of colorectal cancer deaths could be prevented with regular screenings.

Chris Stamp, 70, who as a cockney kid from East London aspired to make a documentary film about the rise of British rock in the 1960s and ended up helping discover and manage a raucous working-class quartet called The Who, died Nov. 24 in Manhattan. The cause was complications of colorectal cancer, his wife, Calixte, said. "I was knocked out," Mr. Stamp recalled in 1966 of the night he first saw The Who perform in 1964. "But the excitement I felt wasn't coming from the group. I couldn't get near enough.

Could colon cancer be a hormone deficiency disease? And could that deficiency also play a role in obesity? Thomas Jefferson University researcher Scott Waldman has been awarded a $1.2 million "provocative questions" grant from the National Cancer Institute to try to find answers. His search is focused on a hormone called guanylyl cyclase that binds to a cell "receptor," called GCC, in the intestines. The hormone activates GCC, which in turn tells intestinal cells to make more hormones.

Studies with impressive results often flawed, research shows If a medical study seems too good to be true, it probably is, according to new research. In a statistical analysis of nearly 230,000 trials, results that claimed a "very large effect" rarely held up when other teams tried to replicate them, researchers reported last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. "The effects largely go away; they become much smaller," said John Ioannidis, the Stanford researcher and the report's senior author.

Question: A friend of ours had a bad leg clot (deep vein thrombosis, or DVT). What surprised me is that he has cirrhosis of the liver. I thought that people with cirrhosis have bleeding problems. Can you tell me how he could get a clot? Answer: You're correct that folks who have severe cirrhotic liver damage have clotting problems due to an inability of a damaged liver to make adequate proteins necessary for proper clotting to occur, a decreased number of platelets (clot cells), and an impairment in the function of existing platelets.

Mary Melchiorre Bacchi of Bridgeport, who with her husband, Russell, founded the Bacchi Funeral Home in that Montgomery County town in October 1952, died of colorectal cancer on Monday, June 11, at Paoli Hospital. Born in Monocacy, near Pottstown, Mrs. Bacchi attended Pottstown High School. Son Darryl said Mrs. Bacchi "assisted my father in the daily activities of the funeral home, helping with the books, helping with the cosmetics. " After her husband died in 2002, "up until the last month, she worked with me. " Mrs. Bacchi was born of immigrant parents.

Bee Gees star Robin Gibb's physician confirmed Sunday the singer has advanced colorectal cancer and remains in intensive care after waking from a coma. Andrew Thillainayagam said that when Gibb, 62, weakened by chemotherapy and surgery, contracted pneumonia and fell into a coma last week, he warned Gibb's wife and three children he might not come out of it. But Gibb is now fully conscious and able to speak, though "exhausted, extremely weak, and malnourished," Thillainayagam said.

John Baldwin Lord, 89, formerly of Abington, a retired chemical engineer and World War II prisoner of war, died Friday, Feb. 3, of complications from cancer at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, Ill. Mr. Lord grew up in a suburb of Chicago. In 1942, he enlisted in the Army Air Forces and became a radio operator aboard B-24 bombers based in England. In October 1944, his plane was shot down over Kassel, Germany, and he and five members of his crew were captured.