I had colonoscopy three times in 6 years, but still got colon cancer?

According to the “Fujian Health News” report, 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. He attaches great importance to the screening of bowel cancer and insists on regular colonoscopy. He has done it three times in 6 years, and once every more than a year, and every time a colonoscopy has removed some polyps.

Surprisingly, during a recent colonoscopy, Uncle Zhang Ascending colon cancer was detected, but fortunately it was only in the early stage and could be cured by 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. The prognosis is quite poor.

1. Why do many people not like colonoscopy?

Many people are intimidated when they hear “colonoscopy”. How is a colonoscopy done?

The colonoscope is not a “mirror”, but a slender and flexible rubber tube with lights, cameras, and biopsy tubes at the tip , flushing and inflation device. 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.

During the examination, if foreign objects are encountered, 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.

President of Endoscopy Branch of Chinese Medical Doctor Association, Academician Li Zhaoshen of Chinese Academy of Engineering It is believed that based on the population of 1.4 billion in my country, about 10% of the people need colonoscopy every year strong>. But in fact, among the patients diagnosed with advanced colorectal cancer in my country, about 97% had not undergone colonoscopy before diagnosis. mirror.

Why don’t many people like colonoscopy?

1. Ignoring early cancer screening

People generally lack early cancer screening Screening awareness, ignorant of early gastrointestinal tumors often do not have 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, the unfamiliar The foreign body protrudes into the body, and it is very painful just by imagination. Out of fear of the unknown, it is difficult to make up my mind to perform a colonoscopy.

Second, how many years can a colonoscopy be done?

Published in The Lancet, a large clinical trial study from the Cancer Screening and Prevention Research Team of Imperial College London, UK, analyzed that a single flexible sigmoidoscopy can make The subject population had a nearly 30% reduction in bowel cancer incidence over the subsequent17 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 and hyperplasia to advanced stage. , and colonoscopy can help us detect polyps and hyperplasia early and prevent the occurrence of cancer in time.

Third, why do I often do colonoscopy, 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. Bowel cancer was diagnosed after a year and a half.

Even with colonoscopy, the rate of missed bowel cancer is 5%, and the rate of missed polyp is 10-30% . The reasons for the missed diagnosis may be related to the following factors:

1. Intestinal not emptying

Before the colonoscopy, the bowel preparation was insufficient, resulting in stool residue blocking the view of the colonoscopy.

2. Some polyps have special locations

Some flat polyps hide in the intestines Dead ends, or blocked by folds, are difficult to detect through instruments.

3. Too small polyps

A time 83 in the Department of Gastroenterology, Suzhou Seventh People’s Hospital In a study of colorectal polyps, it was found that the smaller the polyp, the easier it was to miss the diagnosis. Generally, polyps larger than 10mm have an undiagnosed rate of 5.33%, while polyps of about 5-10mm have an undiagnosed rate of 30.43%.

4. Insufficient time for colonoscopy

In terms of inspection time, a study by the Seventh Hospital of Suzhou also found that general retirementThe 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, take off your pants for colonoscopy, how to reduce embarrassment?

Many people have to take off their pants in front of strangers when they worry 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 over 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

painless Gastrointestinal endoscopy is a new type of painless technology based on traditional endoscopy. Before colonoscopy, physicians will choose safe, fast and short-acting strong>Intravenous analgesic and anesthetic drugs, allowing patients to safely perform gastroenteroscopy in a short sleep state. Everyone is asleep, so naturally there is no such thing as “can’t take off” pants.

2. Wear professional “open crotch pants”

In fact, I do colonoscopy now, some The hospital will also provide the kind of shorts specially made 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.

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