DIY colon cancer screening kits now available provincewide
Eastern Health opens third endoscopy room to allow for more hospital procedures
“Screening for colon cancer is easy,” reads a sign using a bathroom as a backdrop. “You’ve been practising here for years.”
People all across the province who are being screened for the disease can now do so in the privacy of their own bathroom by using an at-home fecal immunochemical test kit. Using it is as simple as pooping, sampling the stool with a small probe and then sending the sample in the mail to be analyzed.
The Newfoundland and Labrador Colon Cancer Screening Program was expanded to the Eastern Health Region Thursday after being rolled out across the province’s other regions since 2012.
Dr. Jerry McGrath, who leads the program, said since its inception, more than 10,000 kits have been mailed out. About 76 per cent were returned.
“Over the past three years we’ve already seen tremendous results,” he said, adding the majority of the tests were negative.
“However, there have been positive kits, and about 1,000 individuals underwent colonoscopies. In these 1,000 individuals we found that about 60 per cent had these pre-cancerous lesions or polyps that have been removed. This helped prevent colon cancer in these individuals down the road.
He said a few of those people were found to have cancer already, but it was at an earlier, more treatable stage.
McGrath said Newfoundland and Labrador has the highest death rate from colon cancer in Canada. He said this program can help with critical early detection, but only if patients participate.
Along with making the DIY kits available, Eastern Health has opened a third room dedicated to endoscopy procedures at St. Clare’s Hospital. Eastern Health president and CEO David Diamond said said the room will allow for about 240 more procedures per month.
For more information, contact your regional health authority.
In 2015 in Newfoundland and Labrador... 560 new colorectal cancer cases are expected 330 of those will be in men 230 of those will be in women 240 deaths from colorectal cancer are expected 140 of the patients will be men 100 of the patients will be women
SOURCE: CANADIAN CANCER SOCIETY