With all the options to screen for colon cancer, a colonoscopy is still your best bet

Nikki Sommer, a nurse with Key West Surgical Group, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning for Medical Matters.

The FDA has just approved a blood test to screen for colon cancer called Shield.

Sommer said, “I’m kind of on the fence about it, but we’ll go into it. So just like the Colaguard, which is when you use send your stool sample off to test to see if there’s DNA for cancer, it’s kind of the same thing. So if this is positive, and remember there’s false positives, and there’s always false negatives. If it’s positive, it actually means that there could be a tumor. They’re detecting the tumor in your bloodstream, which again, makes the colonoscopy the better choice, because it doesn’t detect if you have a polyp or not. There’s the benign polyp that where if you have you repeat your colonoscopy every five years, that’s a hyperplastic polyp. Then you have the adenoma, which is the precancerous one. So they start small, and then they grow over time. So when you have this blood test, again, like with the Cologuard, they’re recommending every three years, you get it done. But again, if you have a polyp that’s cancerous and you have the blood tested and it doesn’t detect it, and you wait three years, that polyp has been growing for three years.”

The Shield test does detect potential cancer in the blood stream, but by the time it hits the blood stream, things are pretty serious.

Sommer confirmed, “This is for people and they’re saying it’s going to increase the number of people being screened for colorectal cancer. So they’re going to use this as a tool for those people that are on the fence and they will use that I don’t have a family history, there’s no reason for me to get the colonoscopy. I think what it is, is trying to, I guess, bridge the gap, to get more people screened for colon cancer, but if it’s positive, you’re going to have to get a colonoscopy. Then when you deal with that, like we do here, when we see patients in the office who have a positive Cologuard, for example, their anxiety is now through the roof because they think they have colon cancer, and they can’t wait to have the colonoscopy.”

Since the mid-1990s, there has been a rise in colon cancer in those younger than 55.

Sommer said, “There was a test called Epi proColon and it was approved in 2016. But I have never even heard of that until I read this article. So I know Shield is the one that the FDA has approved and that they’re going to be offering. Again, it is a good tool for those people that are really truly against a colonoscopy. But the off side of that is it doesn’t detect whether you have polyps or not. So you can have a precancerous polyp and when you have the blood test drawn, there’s no DNA there in your body. But as it grows and turns into cancer, if you wait three years, three years can mean it could be a more advanced cancer.”

About 53,000 people will die of colorectal cancer this year.

Sommer said, “You have to remember when you have a colonoscopy, if you have a polyp, the doctor will take it out. When you have a blood test, again, there’s no way knowing if you have a polyp that needs to be taken out, and if it’s not cancer, yet, it’s not going to emit that DNA, to alert you that you do have cancer.”

About 60% of people who are eligible to have screenings like colonoscopies haven’t had it.

Remember, the Key West Surgical Group also has lasers to help with skin rejuvenation and laser hair removal.

Sommer said the EliteIQ laser “can do laser hair removal. I’m so excited. It is fast, quick laser hair removal. What it does is it creates permanent hair reduction. Now, just so everybody knows we can never permanently remove all your hair, because your body changes and hair cycles. The growth cycle changes as we get older. However, it can permanently reduce your hair and limit the amount of shaving that you would require.”

The average woman will spend 72 days of her life shaving her legs.

Sommer said, “It’s really annoying. It’s really time consuming. Nobody realizes you’ve got to plan around, you’ve got to allow extra time on the days you have to shave your legs and the cost of razors and the creams to prevent razor bumps, I mean the laser hair removal all the way. If you are, unfortunately, if you’re really blonde or red hair, the laser can’t pick it up. But everybody else, it definitely will.”

The EliteIQ will also handle spider veins.

Sommer said, “Those little pesky spider veins, and even the ones on your face, you get those broken little capillaries on your face, and a lot of people get them down here from some exposure. So the EliteIQ takes care of those as well, as well as those spider veins on your legs that a lot of people don’t want to put shorts on because they you can see them. We have treatment for that too.”

For more information, click here:  https://www.keywestsurgicalgroup.com/