WLWT: UC expert discusses colorectal cancer screening recommendations

March is Colon Cancer Awareness Month, and the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center's Carla F. Justiniano, MD, discussed the importance of screening with WLWT's Meredith Stutz.

In 2021, the recommended screening age for colorectal cancer was decreased from 50 to 45. But Justiniano noted people with a family history of colorectal cancer may need to be screened even earlier, 10 years before the family member was diagnosed. So if a parent was diagnosed at age 49, their child may want to start screening at age 39.

"I think, you know, that the repercussions of having an early cancer that gets cut, that is caught during a screening colonoscopy versus having something very advanced, is so different," said Justiniano, a Cancer Center colorectal surgeon and assistant professor in UC's College of Medicine. "You know, if you have an early rectal cancer caught in a colonoscopy, you can have minimally invasive surgery or approaches. Maybe you don't even need your rectum removed, things like that. And your life could very much go on without too much change."

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Featured photo at top courtesy of iStock Photo.