Dr. Hanah Apfelbaum is a second-year Family Medicine resident at UPMC Washington. She was born and raised in the Champlain Valley in Vermont. She attended the University of Vermont Honors College where she studied psychological science. After college, she attended the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where she was a member and co-president of the acapella group the “Pal-PITT-ations”. When she isn’t seeing patients, she enjoys hiking and drawing.

Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month 

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Colorectal cancer is a cancer that starts in the lower intestinal tract, but can spread to the rest of the body. It can run in families, but even without a family history, anyone can be affected. Some people may notice pain, constipation, or bleeding if they have colon cancer, but other people will have no symptoms. If it is caught early, colon cancer can be treated.

Screening for colon cancer should now start for everyone by age 45, because across the country more people are being affected at a younger age every year. If you have a family history of colon cancer in your immediate family, you may need screening even younger than this, so you should bring this family history up when speaking with your doctor.

The best screening for colon cancer is a colonoscopy. If a colonoscopy is normal, typically screening happens every 10 years. You may need screening again sooner than 10 years if there was something abnormal such as a polyp found, even if there was no cancer in the polyp.

If you are not comfortable getting a colonoscopy, some people are candidates for a home stool test to get more information about your risk based on if there is blood in the stool. However, if that test is positive, then a colonoscopy is the next step. This test is usually done at least every 3 years.

Your family doctor can help answer your questions about colon cancer screening. If you need a primary care provider, call our physician referral line at 724-250-4310.