Dr. Donald Kirk, Chief Medical Officer at Star Valley Health, stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Thursday, March 26 to discuss colon cancer, prevention and treatment as part of Colon Cancer Awareness Month.

(0:00) Heading into another guest interview segment this morning on the weekday wake up and joining (0:05) me in studio this time is Dr. Donald Kirk. He’s the Chief Medical Officer for Starbody Health. (0:10) Dr. Kirk, good morning.

Appreciate your time today. How are you? (0:13) Morning, Duke. (0:14) Thanks so much for coming in.

It is colorectal cancer awareness month (0:19) here in March. And so a topic everybody loves talking about around the water cooler, right? (0:25) Tell us about colorectal cancer awareness month and why there’s a month designated (0:29) for this and specifically for it. (0:32) Thank you.

Colon cancer is a very significant problem in the United States (0:39) and becoming a much more significant problem for those under the age of 50, (0:44) surprisingly so, over the last several years. In fact, it is now the leading cause of cancer (0:52) death for men under the age of 50. And it is the second leading cause of cancer death (1:00) in the United States overall.

More women get breast cancer and die of breast cancer, (1:07) and more men get prostate cancer. But when you take everybody put together, lung cancer, (1:14) number one cause of cancer death in people over the age of 50, and colon cancer is next in line. (1:21) And the important thing for everybody to understand is that we know that screening (1:28) prevents death.

And that’s been known for many, many, many years. And in the end, (1:36) we proved that screening of any sort actually decreases the risk of dying from colon cancer. (1:44) And the reason being is the sooner we catch it, the more likely we are to be able to treat you (1:50) successfully to help you survive that.

So when it comes to screening, that’s when there’s lots (1:57) of questions. Got you. Yes, absolutely.

You mentioned under 50. And so what at what age (2:02) should a man start getting screened for colon cancer? So the issue, as I’ve tried to say is (2:09) we have to put people into two buckets. One bucket is average risk and the other bucket is high risk.

(2:16) And when it comes to high risk, you have to look at various things. But one of the most important (2:22) parts of being high risk is whether there’s a family history of someone who’s had colon cancer (2:27) in particular. But even those who have family members who’ve been found to have certain types (2:32) of polyps during colonoscopies are put into the high risk category.

And that determines when people (2:39) should start screening. But to focus on just the average individual, we now start recommending (2:45) screening at age 45, instead of 50, as it was before. And the frequency of screening depends on (2:53) what type of screening is being done and what your risk factors are.

(2:57) So there are different types of screening. And so let’s let’s talk about that. How does it all work? (3:02) So there’s lots of things that you’ve seen on TV, or maybe heard on radio or social media.

(3:09) And right now, I basically feel that there’s only two really standard ways of screening, (3:19) albeit some insurance companies still push doing just stool testing for blood on a yearly basis. (3:30) But the important part of that is that you have to test every year for that to be an effective (3:34) means of screening. Everybody’s probably seen the commercials for Cologuard, which has been (3:41) around for several years now and is a very effective means of screening for people who are (3:46) average risk.

And that’s the point that’s really important to understand is that’s for people who (3:52) are at average risk. And if you’ve had a colonoscopy, for example, and we have found polyps (3:57) before, then generally, most of those individuals are now considered high risk and shouldn’t screen (4:04) in that way. Anybody who has a Cologuard test that comes back positive or abnormal, then they (4:12) need to undergo a colonoscopy.

When you talk about screening, you talk about risk, you talk (4:18) about expense. Cologuard, reasonably priced when it comes to testing overall, and insurance (4:26) companies do pay for that. And in fact, they’re paying for it so much that they’re actually just (4:32) sending out, having the company send out test kits to their clients without any physician (4:43) interaction in that regards, which is an interesting phenomenon.

But that said, (4:49) Cologuard currently, the sensitivity is about 92%. So what does that mean? Means if you took (4:56) 100 people who have colon cancer, and you gave them the Cologuard test, 92 of those people would (5:03) test positive and about eight would test negative. Then you have to talk about sensitivity.

(5:09) Sensitivity means if you test 100 people randomly with the Cologuard, and they get a positive test, (5:17) what’s the chances that that’s actually cancer? And the company suggests somewhere between 40 to (5:23) 50%. And in the experience of the providers here at Star Valley Health, not quite that sort of (5:30) level of sensitivity. However, we have found that people who have positive tests often have polyps (5:37) that are advanced in size and severity, and it’s good that they’ve undergone the colonoscopy.

(5:44) So in the event that cancer is found, what is the treatment process like in colon cancer? (5:50) The first part of treatment for any cancer in general is understanding the stage. There’s (5:58) four stages to all cancers. And depending on the stage will determine how we best approach (6:06) an individual with treatment.

Colon cancer for stages one through three, almost always (6:14) starts with surgery, but it requires a lot of workup and imaging studies and blood tests and (6:21) that sort of thing prior to undergoing any sort of treatment option. Excellent. Dr. Donald Kirk (6:26) in studio this morning with Star Valley Health Chief Medical Officer, and it is Colon Cancer (6:31) Awareness Month.

Anything else on this topic that is worth mentioning today? No, really important (6:37) to stay up on your screening for all cancers. And today we’re just talking about colon cancer, (6:44) and it’s really important to involve your primary care physician in those discussions (6:50) to allow them to help guide you in the best direction and getting screening. That’s Dr. (6:55) Donald Kirk this morning on the weekday wake up.

It’s all part of the SVI radio network on Swift 98