Barry Baines

Number one, can our medical system actually deliver that?

I remember from a few years ago, they said, well, if everybody who's supposed to have a screening colonoscopy would have it, there wouldn't be enough physicians in the country to do that service.

I mean, it gets to be a supply and demand kind of thing.

But one of the two things I wanted to point out is with screening, what's been amazing is within a very short time span, like maybe 10 to 20 years, the recommendations for colorectal cancer screening has plummeted by about 10 years.

I think from what it used to be, certainly for anybody who's potentially high risk, that's one thing.

And the thing that's more concerning to me

is that the early onset colorectal cancer when it's discovered it's you know more aggressive in terms of it's at a more advanced stage because for most of us you know kind of my age now in the in the 70s so i'm getting started starting to get closer i don't have to have colonoscopies anymore but i don't i don't they're not that bad so

So that's okay.

But colon cancer, when found at a stage one, oftentimes is almost 100% curable.

And so the earlier you find it, you know, you're, you're quote cured.

And, you know, the reality is that, that's, you know, that's great.

But the more advanced the stage that you find a cancer at, the less likely you are to get a total cure.

And then it becomes how do you manage it?

moving forward so that, again, you achieve a longevity and a kind of quality of life that you want moving forward.

And it really presents a conundrum is how do you, you know, balance all of those things to come up with what makes the most sense for the populations that we deal with.

And it's so easy to, you know, you want to focus on one thing, but you have to put it in the context

of a much broader situation.

But again, having the screening recommendations change relatively dramatically because of the early onset colorectal cancer is really astounding to me.

I mean, it's certainly very, very important.

And part of it is that a lot of the earlier stages in colorectal cancer don't have obvious symptoms.