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Colorectal cancer is a term that includes colon and rectal cancers, both of which originate in the lower portion of the large intestine and into the rectum.
"The vast majority of the time, we don't know exactly what causes any specific cancer," says Dr. Jeremy Jones, a Mayo Clinic oncologist. "But there are a number of factors that can increase the risk of developing colon or rectal cancer."
Dr. Jones says one risk factor is increasing age. However, he adds that over the last 30 years younger patients have seen a 50% increased risk of developing colon and rectal cancers.
In this Mayo Clinic Q&A podcast, Dr. Jones talks about risk factors, symptoms, treatment, health care disparities and the latest in colorectal cancer research.
To practice safe social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, this interview was conducted using video conferencing. The sound and video quality are representative of the technology used. For the safety of its patients, staff and visitors, Mayo Clinic has strict masking policies in place. Anyone shown without a mask was recorded prior to COVID-19 or recorded in an area not designated for patient care, where social distancing and other safety protocols were followed.
Read the full transcript.
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Information in this post was accurate at the time of its posting. Due to the fluid nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific understanding, along with guidelines and recommendations, may have changed since the original publication date.
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I was excited to see the Heading of this subject Screening for Colorectal Cancer. I will ask how many people over the age of 75 years are there in the US or the world for that matter. I was sent to a urologist by my primary care position the urologist sat with me on the pre-examination and looked at me like I was an idiot and said sir you are 76 years old. I'm thinking I wonder how long he went to school to learn how to read my birthday on the application. Then I found that their "ethics" prohibit them from perfofming colonoscopys on patients over 75. Seems to me there may be many millions of people over the age of 75 that should be screened as some of these people actually live to be 76 and older. Is there no screening for anyone above 75 other than the mail in survey that in my case returned saying there was a slight elevation of indicators. Sure leaves out a large part of our people!