(WYTV) – Each day, doctors diagnose 400 more Americans with colon cancer; it’s the second leading cause of cancer affecting both men and women.
Ohio State cancer researchers are using a new screening program for it.
Heather Hampel, from the Ohio State Cancer Center, says they started by looking more closely at more than three thousand patients already diagnosed with colon cancer.
“From that, we have actually offered genetic testing to about 370 at-risk relatives, and another 120 have tested positive, so you can see where it balloons once you get to the family members.”
The researchers have found that one in six colon cancer patients actually have a genetic flaw that raised the risk inheriting colon cancer from another family member. The risk was already there, but this flaw makes it even higher.
If someone in your family has had colon cancer, get tested for this genetic flaw called Lynch Syndrome, especially if you’re under 50.
