Colon Cancer: Early Detection Is Key

The fire service lost a good man earlier this year. I wouldn’t call him a friend (I didn’t have that kind of relationship with him); he was a fellow firefighter with whom I crossed paths at shift change when we worked at the same firehouse. He was a good man, always taking time to stop, say good morning, and chat awhile. He seemed to have a funny/happy smirk on his face all the time. I never worked with him but have been told he was a very good firefighter. This year, he was awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest award given to a firefighter by the state of Illinois, posthumously. You might think this story is about another tragic line-of-duty death, but it isn’t. Chris died after a long battle with colon cancer.

Colon cancer (also called colorectal or bowel cancer) is the third most diagnosed cancer in the world. The disease is characterized by the abnormal growth of cells/tissue within the large intestine (colon). Most often, the disease starts out as polyps (fleshy growths) within the colon. The polyps can be benign (noncancerous), premalignant, or malignant (cancerous). Malignant polyps (stage 0 cancer) have a very high cure rate. If the cancer is confined to the wall of the large intestine (stage 1 or 2), it can be cured with a 90-percent survival rate after five years. As the cancer extends into the lymph nodes (stage 3) and to other sites (stage 4), the survival rate after five years drops to about seven percent.

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