Check out Colonversation.ca, a new website from Canadian Partnerships Against Cancer.
Here’s their 5-minute “how-to” video re: colon cancer home screening. This is another great resource you can use in the community … spread the word!
Let’s Have a “Colonversation” …
Friday, April 2nd, 2010A Giant Colon Is Taking Over GTA Malls
Monday, March 8th, 2010
[photo taken from CBC.ca]
If you were at Toronto’s Dufferin Mall last week, you may have noticed a large pink object planted firmly in front of the Walmart.
Your eyes weren’t playing tricks on you: what you were seeing was a 40-foot long, inflatable colon.
In order to draw awareness to colorectal cancer awareness month, the good folks at ColonCancerCheck,a government initiative, have set up a walk-through colon,complete with polyps and video screens that discuss cancer prevention.
The colon has since departed Dufferin Mall. It will make its next appearance at St. Lawrence Lounge (Queen’s Park) March 17-18. Then it’s off to Lansdowne Mall in Peterborough (March 23-24) before finishing its tour in Pembroke’s Pemboke Mall March 26-27.
For more pics, visit Torontoist.
March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and Nutrition Month
Monday, March 1st, 2010
Colorectal Cancer Quick Facts:
- Colorectal cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer for women.
- Colon cancer is 90% treatable when caught early.
What You Can Do:
- Are you 50 and over? Ask your doctor or pharmacist for an FOBT kit (Fecal Occult Blood Test)
- If you are hight than average risk, talk to your doctor about your individual screening plan.
Eat Well to Reduce Your Risk of Colorectal Cancer
The foods you choose can help to reduce your risk of colorectal cancer.
Reach for fruits and veggies to reduce your risk. These have many important nutrients that keep us healthy and they are also high in fibre! Eating a diet high in fibre also helps maintain a haelthy body weight which also helops to lower our risk of developing many types of cancer. Limit red meat servings to 3 servings of 3 ounces a week (red meat includes beef, pork, goat and lamb). Research shows that diets high in red meat may increase the risk of colorectal cancer. Limit processed meats, i.e. meats preserved by smoking, salting, curing or the addition of preservatives such as nitrates. These foods should be saved for special occasions.
Finally, research shows that alcohol increases the riskof colorectal cancer. If you do choose to drink alcohol, keep it to less than one drink/day for women and less than 2 drinks/day for men.
This information was provided by Andrea Smith, Senior Coordiantor Prevention, Canadian Cancer Society.
Dom Sitas Fights Back
Monday, February 22nd, 2010A few weeks back The Canadian Press profiled Dom Sitas, colorectal cancer survivor from Oakville, Ontario.
Given a “three per cent chance of surviving,” Sitas underwent surgery to remove cancerous parts of his colon, lymph nodes and liver before enduring eight months of chemotherapy.
Feeling scard and alone, Sitas found help through the Canadian Cancer Society’s Peer Support program.
Dom now actively promotes the CCS via fightback and below is a moving PSA that he shot for the Society. I am continually taken aback by the strength, dignity and determination of cancer survivors, and Dom Sitas is no exception. His composure and grace are outstanding.
Dom appears to have beaten cancer. His bi-annual CT Scans show no return of the disease to date.
Read Dom’s Story after the jump.
Screen for Colon Cancer at Home
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010Despite the being the No. 2 cause of cancer-related deaths in Canada and the US, close to half of Americans who are in 
need of colon cancer screening are not getting tested.
A recent article in the Associated Press suggests that although early detection could “eliminate” many new cases of the roughly 150,000 cases of colon cancer that are diagnosed each year in the US, 45 per cent of at-risk individuals have refrained from testing – despite the presence of numerous public awareness campaigns in both Canada and the US.
Part of the reluctance relates to having to edure the dreaded colonoscopy – a procedure in which a long tube is inserted into to the colon and inspected by a doctor. While this has been marketed as the only effective means of testing for colorectal cancer – it currently accounts for 80% of tests in the US – there are other, less evasive, screening methods.
Kaiser Permanente, for example, has developed an at-home stool test which is as effective as doctor-adminstered test, and it appears to be growing in popualrity. Since introducing the mail-in kit, which retails for around $20.00 US, researchers have seen a spike in screening rates.
Health care practitioners hope that the kit will help squash the public’s reservations about colorectal cancer screening.
I hope so, too. It’s very important that everyone get tested for this terrible disease.
Regular screening should begin at the age of 50, regardless of family history. The statistics are sobering: each week in Canada, an average of 423 Canadians are diagnosed with colon cancer. Early detection is, as always, the most effective treatment.
Click here to learn more about colon cancer.
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