While minimally invasive surgery has been shown to be as safe as open surgery, the recovery is expected to be faster and the risk of infection following surgery is smaller.
Susan Burke’s journey with colorectal cancer started with an appendectomy. At 47 years old, a pain in her right, lower abdomen for more than a year led doctors to find an appendix that was swollen to three times its normal size.
Marleigh Cummins lost her dad to colorectal cancer in January 2016, when she was just nine years old. As sadness gripped her, a therapist showed her how to heal through art a passion that has helped Marleigh become a fundraising DIYnamo for the Colorectal Cancer Alliance.
When Dom turned 50, he knew it was time to get screened for colorectal cancer. Symptom-free, he thought it would be another check mark. Instead, a colonoscopy found stage IIIa colon cancer.
While more than 20 million additional people will be able to get a preventive colorectal cancer screening, most at no cost, this change will not catch every colorectal cancer. We still have work to do.
After a recent diagnosis with stage III colon cancer, the 54-year-old Kangol aims to challenge the way many Black men deal with this disease — which, he said, is with silence and suck-it-up attitudes.
When given a choice, most individuals with an average risk of colorectal cancer said they would prefer a stool-based screening test for colorectal cancer over colonoscopy.
