Colon cancer screening: Combating fear with humor
Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.
More posts by Christiane Fux All content is checked by medical journalists.The colon cancer month of March is coming to an end. However, the topic of prevention is relevant all year round! This is especially true during pandemic times.
However, many people still shy away from a colonoscopy, even though it is the most reliable screening test for colon cancer.
The Felix Burda Foundation has tackled precisely this crux of the matter with humor: With the campaign “Preventiophobia - When the fear of colon cancer prevention is greater than the fear of cancer”, the foundation has now presented humorous spots and advertisements that are brightly colored for the second year running and obliquely transfers the subject of phobias to colon cancer screening. The campaign received numerous prizes for this.
Phobias: irrational fears
Phobias are states of fear that are triggered by harmless situations, objects or animals, for example spiders (arachnophobia) or narrow spaces (claustrophobia). The artificial term preventive phobia makes it clear that the fear of a colonoscopy is also irrational. Those who allow themselves to be discouraged from preventive care run the risk of colon cancer being diagnosed at a late stage, when it is difficult to treat or even incurable.
More courage to take precaution
"With our #preventiophobia campaign, we have shown how bizarre it actually is to be more afraid of an examination that prevents cancer than of the cancer itself," says Carsten Frederik Buchert, Director Marketing & Communications of the Felix Burda Foundation.
Current figures show that this knowledge is becoming more and more popular. In the past year, many patients canceled doctor's appointments for fear of being infected with Sars-CoV-2 - including those for preventive purposes. Colon cancer screening was hardly affected. In 2020, even more people had a colonoscopy than in previous years.
The reasons for this are invitations to colon cancer screening, which were sent for the first time in July 2019, and the lowering of the age limit for men from 55 to 50 years.
145,000 deaths prevented
Since the statutory preventive colonoscopy was introduced in 2002, around 8 million insured persons have taken advantage of this opportunity. This prevented around 306,000 new cases and 145,000 deaths from colon cancer.
Compared to other screenings for early cancer detection, colonoscopy screening for colorectal cancer has a decisive advantage: With a colonoscopy, preliminary stages of colon tumors, so-called colon polyps, can not only be reliably detected, but also removed immediately - before they can degenerate. This is the case in more than a third of the people examined, and in one percent an already developed tumor is found.
Regardless of the precautionary measures, however, the following applies: Blood in the stool and long-lasting abdominal complaints should be clarified immediately by a gastroenterologist.
.jpg)
