I had colonoscopy three times in 6 years, but still got colon cancer?
According to the “Fujian Health News”, the 60-year-old Uncle Zhang himself has a family history of bowel cancer. Both his parents have been diagnosed with bowel cancer, and his sister also has bowel polyps, so he pays special attention to bowel cancer screening. He insisted on regular colonoscopy examinations, three times in 6 years, and once every more than a year, and every time colonoscopy was performed, some polyps were removed.
Surprisingly, during a recent colonoscopy, Uncle Zhang detected ascending colon cancer. Fortunately, it was only in the early stage. Do surgery.
Uncle Zhang’s situation is actually quite lucky. In China, many colorectal cancer patients have not undergone colonoscopy before the onset of the disease, and the diagnosis is in the advanced stage, and the prognosis is quite poor.
1. Why don’t many people like colonoscopy?
Many people are intimidated by the word “colonoscopy”. How exactly is a colonoscopy done?
The colonoscope is not a “mirror”, but a long, flexible rubber hose with a light, camera, biopsy tube, flushing and inflation device at the tip. Using the camera, physicians can clearly see from the anus along the lumen, large intestine, and all the way to the cecum and the end of the small intestine.
If foreign objects are encountered during the inspection, the head-end flushing tool can help flush the intestines, and can also inflate the narrow intestines to open the narrow intestines and reduce blind spots. If it is found that there is something abnormal in the intestine, or the intestine itself is abnormal, the abnormal tissue can be immediately clamped through the biopsy tube and sent for pathological examination.
Li Zhaoshen, President of the Endoscopy Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering believes that based on the population of 1.4 billion in my country, < strong>About 10% of people need colonoscopy every year. However, in fact, among the patients diagnosed with advanced colorectal cancer in my country, about 97% had not undergone colonoscopy before diagnosis.
Why don’t many people like colonoscopy?
1. Ignoring early cancer screening
People generally lack awareness of early cancer screening, and do not understand that early gastrointestinal tumors often have no typical symptoms , all think “Is there any discomfort in my intestines, why should I spend ‘wasted money’?”. This has also led to the fact that many patients with colorectal cancer are already in the middle and late stages when they are discovered.
2. Blind fear of colonoscopy
In the consciousness of many people, it is very painful to put an unfamiliar foreign body into the body, just relying on imagination. Fear of the unknown makes it difficult to make up your mind to go for a colonoscopy.
Second, after a colonoscopy, how many years can I stay safe?
Published in The Lancet, a large clinical trial study from the Cancer Screening and Prevention Research Team at Imperial College London, UK, analyzed that a single flexible sigmoidoscopy could reduce Reduce the incidence of bowel cancer by nearly 30% in the subject group in the subsequent 17 years.
Academician Li Zhaoshen also once said that a colonoscopy can guarantee that you will not get colorectal cancer within five or ten years.
Why does colonoscopy reduce risk?
This is because colorectal cancer usually takes about 10 years to develop from polyps, hyperplasia to advanced stage, and colonoscopy can help us detect it early Polyps and hyperplasias, preventing the occurrence of cancer in time.
Third, why do colonoscopy often, but still get colon cancer?
It needs to be reminded that even though colonoscopy is the most accurate screening method for colon cancer, it will still be missed. Colon cancer will be detected in a year and a half.
Even with colonoscopy, the rate of missed diagnosis of bowel cancer is still 5%, and the rate of missed diagnosis of polyps is 10-30%. The reasons for the missed diagnosis may be related to the following factors:
1. The bowel is not emptied
Before colonoscopy, the bowel Inadequate preparation of the tract, resulting in fecal remnants blocking the view of the colonoscope.
2. Some polyps are located in special positions
Some flat polyps will hide in the dead corners of the intestine or be blocked by folds, which are difficult to detect through instruments.
3. Too small polyps
In a study of 83 cases of colorectal polyps in the Department of Gastroenterology, Suzhou Seventh People’s Hospital, it was found that the smaller the polyps, the easier it was to miss the diagnosis . Generally, polyps larger than 10mm have a missed diagnosis rate of 5.33%, while polyps of about 5-10mm have a missed diagnosis rate of 30.43%. Polyps <5mm are most likely to be missed.
4. Insufficient time for colonoscopy
In terms of the time for colonoscopy, the study of the Seventh Hospital of Suzhou also found that the general The missed diagnosis rate was 6.85% when the endoscopy time was longer than 6 minutes, and the missed diagnosis rate was 39.84% when the endoscopy time was less than 6 minutes.
Fourth, how to reduce embarrassment if you have to take off your pants for colonoscopy?
Many people have to take off their pants in front of strangers when they are worried about colonoscopy, which is very embarrassing. In fact, colonoscopists have special training, and they do dozens of such examinations every day. In the eyes of medical staff, this is already commonplace, which is not surprising, so patients just need to keep it easy. .
But some people really can’t get past the psychological “level”. If you want to reduce embarrassment, you may try the following two methods.
1. If you have economic conditions, you can choose painless colonoscopy
painlessGastrointestinal endoscopy is a new type of painless technique based on traditional endoscopy. Before colonoscopy, physicians will choose safe, rapid, and short-acting intravenous analgesic and anesthetic drugs to make patients Gastrointestinal endoscopy is performed safely with brief sleep. Everyone is asleep, so naturally there is no such thing as “can’t take off” pants.
2. Wear professional “open crotch pants”
In fact, colonoscopy is now done, and some hospitals will also provide shorts for colonoscopy. Similar to crotch pants, it opens from the buttocks, so there is no need to take off the pants, just a bare butt balls. You can find out in advance whether the hospital provides such pants, if not, you can bring your own.
Compared to the embarrassment of having a colonoscopy, it is more important to ensure that your gut is healthy. Colonoscopy is of great significance for “early detection, early diagnosis, and early treatment” of colorectal tumors, so it is recommended that people over the age of 50 should do it.
References:
[1] “One hundred million people in my country need colonoscopy! A set of data tells you how “colonoscopy” saves lives”. Life Times. 2019-03-28
[2] “One colonoscopy can guarantee 5 years of safety! Be careful if you are over 50 years old! “. Health Times. 2019-02-18
[3]”A man in Fujian has undergone colonoscopy 4 times in 6 years, but he was still found to have colon cancer. What happened? “. Fujian Health News. 2022-03-10