How Does Colorectal Cancer Screening Prevent and Detect Cancer?

Dr. Usman Shah, who is a medical oncologist at Overlook Medical Center, phase 1 and gastrointestinal oncology medical director, emphasized in an interview with CURE that colorectal cancer screening offers two key benefits: early detection and early prevention.

Colonoscopy can detect colon and rectal cancers at an earlier stage, improving prognosis, and can also prevent cancer by removing benign polyps before they turn malignant — a process that typically takes seven to 10 years. While other noninvasive screening methods can detect cancer early, they do not provide the preventive benefit of polyp removal.

“If we can intervene on that polyp with removing it through a colonoscopy, we can actually decrease the risk of that cancer ever developing in the first place. The colonoscopy can serve both as early detection but actually prevention as well,” he said.

Transcript

How does earlier detection through colonoscopy or other screening methods affect treatment options and long-term outcomes for patients?

Yeah, that's a really important question to make sure that you know folks understand. When we think about screening, there are two potential benefits that we pay attention to. One is, of course, early detection. If you can diagnose colon cancer or rectal cancer at an earlier stage, the prognosis is that much better.

But the other thing to also know is, when we think about colonoscopy, it can serve not just as early detection, but early prevention, or prevention in general. And the reason for that is most colorectal cancers will begin as a benign polyp that will ultimately have the risk of turning into cancer over about seven to 10 years.

If we can intervene on that polyp with removing it through a colonoscopy, we can actually decrease the risk of that cancer ever developing in the first place. The colonoscopy can serve both as early detection but actually prevention as well. But there are certainly other less invasive or noninvasive methods that may still serve as early detection but not necessarily prevention.

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

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