About 135,400 new cases of colorectal cancer will be diagnosed in the United States this year and 56,700 patients will die.  Early detection can be a Lifesaver. 
The risk of developing colorectal cancer increases with age, as does the occurrence of most cancers. The good news is, colorectal cancer is a slow growing cancer and if detected early is very treatable. Why then are the rates of seniors being tested for this cancer so low? In 2005 only 14 % of Americans over the age of 65 received testing for colon cancer. This is despite the fact that these tests are covered by Medicare. With early detection there is a 90% survival rate.  

What is a screening exam?
 
Medical screening exams are commonly performed on healthy individuals to search for potential problems before they become serious. It is like having your car inspected before your brakes fail. A common example is the Pap Smear which is now a well accepted screening tool. If a Pap smear shows pre-cancerous cells, they can be destroyed and cancer is prevented. This simple procedure has reduced a woman's risk of cervical cancer to 1/50th of the previous levels. The basic premise of screening is that it is much more rewarding to prevent a cancer than find one, even in early curable stages.
 
The same principle holds true for colon cancer. Most people don't realize that colon cancer has become the second leading cause of cancer deaths in this country, second only to lung cancer. In fact, in non-smokers, colon cancer is the number one cancer killer - over 56,000 Americans will die this year alone. That's the bad news. The good news is that colon cancer is also one of the most preventable. This is because the majority of colon cancers begin as a small non-cancerous growth called a polyp. Over time, polyps grow silently and eventually can turn to cancer. This transformation may take as long as ten years during which time you feel perfectly fine, oblivious to what danger awaits you.