Schedule Your Screening Colonoscopy
Gastroenterology Associates of Central Virginia now offers “Open Access Colonoscopy” to healthy patients. We are striving to find the most convenient way for you to get your colon cancer screening today. With Open Access Colonoscopy, or “OAC,” a pre-procedure visit may no longer be required, thus saving you time and effort. To learn more, you can print each of the OAC forms; (forms on right) complete and return them to our office. If you prefer, you may call our office at 434-384-1862, press 3 to reach one of our screening colonoscopy coordinators or Register for on-line services.

What is colorectal cancer?

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States, yet it is one of the most preventable types of cancer. Colorectal cancer is often curable when detected early.  Deaths from Colorectal cancer were down six percent in 2006 and that decrease has been attributed to increase in screenings and surveillance efforts. Approximately one out of four people over the age of fifty will have colon polyps and approximately two-thirds of those polyps are the type that could turn into a cancer. By removing those polyps the risk of colon cancer are reduced. The American College of Gastroenterology considers colonoscopy the “gold standard” for colorectal screening because colonoscopy allows physicians to look directly at the entire colon and to identify suspicious growths. Colonoscopy is the only test that allows a biopsy and/or removal of a polyp at the very same time it is first identified.

Screening Guidelines

It is recommended that you and every other American should have a colon screenings every ten years beginning at age fifty. Patients with one second or third degree relative with colon cancer or colon polyps are considered average risk. However, patients with one or more first degree relative (mother, father, brother or sister) with colon cancer or colon polyps are at high risk and should begin screening at age forty or ten years prior to the age that a first degree relative was diagnosed. Typically, colonoscopy  is repeated at an interval of three to five years for those at higher risk.. Other high risk factors include personal history of colorectal cancer or adenomatous polyps, inflammatory bowel disease causing pancolitis or longstanding (>8 to 10 years) active colitis. African Americans are diagnosed with colorectal cancer at a younger age then other ethnic groups. The American College of Gastroenterology in 2005 issued new recommendations to healthcare providers to begin colorectal cancer screening in African Americans at age forty-five rather than fifty.

Knowing your risk factors to any disease can help guide you into the appropriate actions, including changing behaviors and being clinically evaluated or monitored for the disease.

March is Colon Cancer Awareness Month