A latest Canadian campaign that advocates the home screening of colorectal cancer can help in reducing the deaths from cancer by the means of diagnosing it early. The Ontario Canadian province is featured with one of the highest rates of the colorectal cancer in the entire world, as per the local health ministry. The problem has about 90% of the curing rate when trapped while its early stages. However, as the cancer disease is at times asymptomatic till the time it is progressed further, it can sometimes be missed. The term “colorectal cancer” actually refers to the colon as well as rectum cancer. Some of the common symptoms of this disease involve bright or very dark red blood coming from stool, constipation, abdominal discomfort, vomiting, weight loss, exhaustion, alterations faced in the bowel habits and narrowed stools, as per the Canadian Cancer Society.
As per Dr. Philip Branton of Canadian Health Research Institute, approximately 40 percent of Ontarians that are diagnosed with this colon cancer will die each year. This problem is often lethal in US, in which there are an approximate of 150000 cases of the rectal and colon cancer every year and about 50000 deaths. Also, the promotion of fecal occult examinations at home has been started by the provincial government of Ontario. In this test, a screening instrument which helps in testing the stool blood is used. A somewhat same program is introduced in some parts of United Kingdom has helped in reducing the total number of deaths and hospital admissions suffering from this colon cancer to almost half the total number.
The fecal occult examination includes collection of little stool sample on different days along with testing the blood presence in the stool. Stool with blood does not necessarily means that a person is suffering from cancer, but it can serve as an important symptom that can help in detecting the disease before it is actually visible to the naked eye.
