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Colon cancer is the third most fatal cancer in both men and women, resulting in 55,000 deaths in the United States annually. Screening has been proven to be highly effective in saving lives. This is because with the use of colonoscopy, a procedure whereby a scope is passed into the lower digestive tract (the colon), suspicious areas can be biopsied and pre-cancerous polyps can be identified and removed.

There is a debate in the medical community as to what are the best screening tests, but a consensus seems to be developing that colonoscopy is the gold standard. This is because colonoscopy looks at the entire colon unlike sigmoidoscopy, which only visualizes the end of the colon. Other tests, such as barium enemas can find polyps, but are not as accurate as the direct visualization that colonoscopy provides. Furthermore, if lesions are found, colonoscopy must be done to remove them. Doing colonoscopy frequently is not practical or effective, so another screening test is also used. This is the fecal occult blood test. Patients are instructed to give several stool samples to their physician. The stool is then tested for blood and blood products. The problem is that many other conditions, medications and even food can cause this test to be positive. Furthermore, not all cancerous lesions and pre-cancerous polyps leak blood. Thus, most physicians use both colonoscopy and annual fecal occult blood testing to screen their patients. You should be aware than in general, primary care doctors do fecal occult blood tests but that only gastroenterologists perform colonoscopy.