The Colon Cancer Detection Industry - It Goes Unquestioned

[milestogo]

21. I've had a colonoscopy and I've done cologard.

I also worked at the company that creates cologard and is inventing other cancer screening tools.

A colonoscopy is invasive, uncomfortable, and expensive. Patient has to take at least a day off work and endure a miserable prep. If there's no family history and you have a clean colonoscopy, the cologard screening should be enough to protect you after that.

The price of colonoscopy is around $6K vs $600 for cologard. It makes sense to use a cheaper test as a screening for most people.

I'm told the colon doesn't change very much from year to year. So its not like people need frequent screenings.

The limitation with cologard is false positives: The purported rate is 6 percent in those aged 50 to 65. However, DNA methylation occurs during the normal aging process, and thus causes more false positives in people above the age of 65 (a 13 percent false positive rate).

Its hard to say no to a cancer screening. I'm glad you got through it and that you never have to do it again.