"There are people who are really shutting down on getting this lifesaving procedure and they don't want anyone even talking to them about it," Turner noted.
The failure of many people to get screened for colon cancer is a "great tragedy," Turner said, especially because regular colonoscopies can identify precancerous polyps, which can then be removed even before cancer develops. "It is not like breast cancer -- you don't have to wait until you get cancer to do something about it," she explained. "It is a cancer that should be largely preventable if you could get people to do it."
Women may be so focused on breast cancer that they neglect to get screened for colon cancer, which is the third leading cancer killer for women, Turner added. "It's not on their radar, but it needs to be."
SOURCE: Journal of General Internal Medicine, January 2008.
