Colorectal Cancer Screening & Diagnosis

If you’re 45 or older or have a family history of colorectal cancer, the most effective way to reduce your risk is to schedule a screening colonoscopy. This test searches for potentially cancerous polyps (abnormal growths on the inside lining of the colon or rectum). Catching these polyps early can stop them from ever becoming cancer, or detect the disease when it’s most treatable.

AtlantiCare offers screening locations near where you live and work, each staffed with board-certified gastroenterologists and a caring support team. And, despite common concerns, a colonoscopy is much easier than you think:

• Fast: It usually just takes about 30 minutes.
• Simple: Uses a thin, flexible scope with a small camera attached, allowing your physician to both detect and remove polyps in a single procedure.
• Painless: Most patients experience little or minimal discomfort, and you’ll likely be given medicine to relax and sleep through it, so you don’t feel anything.
• Safe: We perform hundreds of colonoscopies every year.
• Life-saving: Colorectal cancer often has no symptoms until it’s too late. A screening colonoscopy may be the only way to catch cancer early.

Call 1-888-569-1000 to schedule your screening colonoscopy today. It’s the best thing you can do for you!

Additional Colorectal Cancer Tests

Colonoscopy is considered the gold standard in colorectal cancer screening, but we also perform other standard tests to help detect polyps and signs of cancer:

• Fecal occult blood test: This test, recommended annually, looks for blood in the stool. Polyps bleed more than normal tissue and these tiny amounts of blood can be detected by a test called  hemoccult . This is an in-office rectal exam that your provider would perform.
• Flexible sigmoidoscopy: This exam, recommended every five years, evaluates the lower section of the colon and rectum, where most polyps and cancers are located. 
• At-home stool test: Some low risk patients may be able to perform an at home test as recommended by their provider. Recommended annually for most patients, this test can be performed at home using a test kit from your provider to collect a stool sample. A lab tests the sample for abnormalities, which could be a sign of cancer.

To schedule an appointment, call 888-569-1000.