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While there’s no such thing as a crystal ball when it comes to colorectal cancer, there are effective screening tools, such as genetic testing. Here, we look at who can benefit from genetic testing for colorectal cancer.
Your health can be largely unpredictable, but scientists are constantly making key advances that give us important clues about what might be in store. A great example of this is genetic testing for certain diseases and conditions, including colorectal cancer.
Each year in the United States, nearly 160,000 colorectal cancers are diagnosed, and the good news is that these diseases are claiming fewer lives, thanks in large part to screening.
As leading specialists in colorectal cancers, which includes colon cancer and rectal cancer, the team at Fairfax Colon & Rectal Surgery very much supports using every tool at our disposal to stay one step ahead of these serious diseases. As part of our screening efforts, we offer genetic testing for colorectal cancer, which makes sense for certain patients, as we discuss below.
What genetic testing tells us
Much of modern medicine is dedicated to unlocking the keys to diseases that are influenced by genes, or, more specifically, certain genetic mutations that are passed down through family trees.
While breast cancer is one of the most common examples of this, we can also track certain genetic markers for colorectal cancers, as well.
Whatever cancer, condition, or disease that we might use genetic testing for, it’s important to remember that results are predictors, not foregone conclusions. In other words, you can have an inherited genetic mutation that places you at higher risk for colorectal cancer, but it doesn’t mean that it’s an inevitable outcome.
Criteria for genetic testing for colorectal cancer
There are many risk factors for colorectal cancers, such as eating a low-fiber diet or having obesity, and heredity ranks near the top of the list. In fact, about 1 in 3 people with colorectal cancer have a family history of the disease.
It’s this family history that we target through genetic testing. In more detail, genetic testing makes good sense for anyone who has an immediate relative (mother, father, or sibling) who has a history of colorectal cancer.
While not as predictive, if you have more distant relatives with a history of colorectal cancer, especially at younger ages, this might be a red flag.
Ultimately, this is why we use genetic counselors at our practice who can comb through your medical history to look for these red flags, which can all point toward the wisdom of genetic testing.
Inherited cancer syndromes
When we perform genetic testing (and this is usually a saliva swab or blood draw), we’re on the lookout for what we call inherited cancer syndromes. The main syndromes that increase the risks for colorectal cancer include:
- Lynch syndrome
- Familial adenomatous polyposis
If we find evidence of either of these inherited genetic mutations during your genetic testing, it means that we’re going to watch you far more closely and perform more frequent screening. In this, genetic testing is invaluable because it allows us to stay one step ahead of your risks for colorectal cancer.
If you’d like to explore whether genetic testing for colorectal cancer is right for you, please click here to schedule a consultation at one of our five offices in the Fairfax, Virginia, area.