En this month of awareness of colorectal cancer – the second deadliest in Quebec, after that of the lung – the Canadian Cancer Society recalls that a test to be done in the comfort of your own bathroom is easily available with a prescription from a doctor.
The RSOSi test consists of taking a sample of his stool so that it can be analyzed in the laboratory to detect the slightest presence of blood. These traces of blood, which are sometimes invisible to the naked eye, can be a sign of cancer even before symptoms appear.
If the test result is positive, a colonoscopy is then indicated to make a diagnosis. Colonoscopy also removes possible polyps, these small masses of flesh on the walls of the large intestine that can turn into cancer.
Out of 1,000 people who perform the test, the presence of blood will be detected in 36 of them, according to figures from the government of Quebec. Of this number, only 4 people will actually have colorectal cancer, while 17 others will have polyps to be removed. The remaining 15 people will not have polyps or cancer.
It’s worth the effort, insists the Canadian Cancer Society.
“When you detect colorectal cancer at an early stage, the survival (after five years) is 90%, whereas if you detect it at a much more advanced stage where there are metastases, you are talking about 15% ”, specifies its spokesperson, André Beaulieu.
Not to mention that removing polyps can completely prevent the development of cancer.
However, across Canada, it is estimated that one in two cases is diagnosed after it has spread to other parts of the body.
A claimed program
In Quebec, where colorectal cancer kills more than breast and prostate cancer combined, only 4 in 10 people in the target age group take the trouble to be screened.
“It is largely insufficient if we want to see an impact in terms of public health,” laments André Beaulieu.
The Canadian Cancer Society has been calling for several years for the establishment of a Quebec program by which a letter serving as a prescription would be sent every two years, as is already the case for mammograms in Quebec women aged 50 at 69 years old.
“Quebec is the only province that does not have an official organized program in the country,” said Beaulieu.
It would nevertheless be “in development”, he adds. But in the meantime, citizens must assume this responsibility and discuss the subject with a doctor.
Symptoms not always apparent
Dr. Claude Rivard, a general practitioner who has survived colon cancer himself, joined this Canadian Cancer Society campaign.
Three and a half years ago, the results of his RSOSI test turned out to be abnormal. A colonoscopy confirmed that he did indeed have cancer. Then, a month later, he found himself on the operating table.
“I had absolutely no symptoms,” he says. I even went to donate blood or platelets every three weeks to a Héma-Québec collection center. I never had anemia, I never had pain, I never saw blood in the stool and it was that test that found my cancer. “
In a telephone interview with The Canadian Press, he recalled a ripple effect around him.
“I told my brothers and my sister about it. They had tests and they found polyps in some family members, who could have turned into cancer in two, three, four or five years, “he says.
“The impact of the test is wider than we think.”
Each year in Quebec, approximately 6,800 people are diagnosed with colon cancer and 2,550 die from the disease.
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