The story on recovering from colon cancer (‘Diving back into a life without cancer, The Sunday Times of Malta, December 8) had some useful points, in particular the list of possible symptoms of the condition, but otherwise lacked other useful information. This is one of the most common cancers in both men and women, particularly in the Western industrialised countries.
Except where there are strong hereditary defects, colon cancer appears to be particularly related to excessive meat consumption (especially processed meat like salami, ham and bacon), insufficient vegetables and fruits in the diet, and possibly obesity, lack of exercise and excessive alcohol consumption.
Taking a small daily dose of aspirin reduces colon cancer risk by around 50 per cent, and fish oil may have a similar effect.
There is also interest in the possible colon cancer risk reduction of probiotics – capsules or liquids containing good bacteria which can replace bad ones in the colon.
Screening for colon cancer aims to detect it at an early stage where surgery alone can be curative.
There are two main colonic screening methods, the faecal occult blood (FOB) test, and colonoscopy. Colonoscopy is superior because it can detect and remove small pre-cancerous nodules (thus preventing progression to cancer), but is very expensive compared to the FOB test, which the individual performs at home and posts to the laboratory.
The FOB test is inferior to colonoscopy in that it tends to detect established cancer rather than pre-cancerous lesions. However, the FOB test has the potential of detecting established cancer at an earlier curable stage.
The UK NHS is about to publish the results of its pilot FOB population screening study, which will show a 10 per cent reduction in colonic cancer mortality with only up to 50 per cent response rate to invitations to do the test (only 30 per cent response in some ethnic groups). The UK NHS has chosen the FOB test as its colonic screening tool. It reckons that colonoscopy for population screening is too expensive and that NHS endoscopy units would not be able to cope with the demand.