Because I turn 50 this year, I received a gift from the government: a collection kit for a stool test. I was invited to drop homemade feces on a piece of paper. Then I had to scrape the stool with a stick, stick that stick in a supplied plexiglass bottle and send it all to a lab. All for free! The results followed a few days later: not abnormal, no further investigation required. I will receive a new test in two years’ time.
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More than 850,000 Flemish people (m / f) between 50 and 74 years receive such a stool test every two years as part of the Colon Cancer Population Screening. Unfortunately, only 51.1 percent of those people returned a sample in 2019.
“Much too little! In the Netherlands, they achieve 70 percent, and we have to go in that direction too, ”says Dr. Luc Colemont. De Hasselaar has been the figurehead, battering ram and mouthpiece of the non-profit organization Stop Darm cancer for years. “The stool test is a gift that can save a lot of misery. It can save lives, avoid suffering and cut costs, a win-win-win situation. ” In the international colorectal cancer month, Colemont puts a blue ribbon – the symbol of the campaign – and goes up a notch.
Dr. Luc Colemont of the non-profit organization Stop Colon Cancer: “The disease is responsible for ten funerals every day. A test can save a lot of suffering. ” — © Wim Daneels
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Because 1 in 20 Belgians has to deal with colon cancer and it remains a major killer.
Luc Colemont: “That is actually unacceptable in a modern welfare state. Every day 23 Belgians are told they have colon cancer. Every day the disease is responsible for ten funerals. Those figures are calculated on normal previous years. I will probably have to adjust the figures for 2020 because of Covid. We will not get the exact results until the end of November, but there will probably be 20 percent fewer colon cancers diagnosed last year. That doesn’t mean there were fewer cancers last year. There are simply fewer diagnoses due to the corona crisis, because people did not dare to go to the doctor or hospital. Regular care also had to be postponed. ”
You advocate a colon cancer dashboard?
“For corona they can say every day: so many new cases, so many admissions, so many deaths… The data for colon cancer also exist, they are only in different computers. And they must be linked to each other. We don’t need to know the numbers every day, but if you can look at it by month or quarter, we could say: what is the effect of that second corona wave? ”
Isn’t the disease necessarily a death sentence?
“No. The sooner you arrive, the greater the chance of a cure. The good news should also be emphasized: Belgium ranks first in the European colon cancer survival ranking. Seventy percent of the patients survive. That is thanks to a combination of several factors. The population screening and the stool test certainly play a part in early detection – which is crucial – but we also have very good surgeons and oncologists. We work well in a group, as one team. ”
You get the stool test from the age of fifty. Is colon cancer a disease of people over 50?
“Fifteen percent of patients are under the age of fifty. Worldwide we see that the age of colon cancer patients is declining. That is why I am personally in favor of starting the population screening at the age of 45 as the American Cancer Foundation is now also proposing. The European directive prescribes it from 50. “
READ ALSO. Chances of survival after cancer diagnosis have risen spectacularly in the last 50 years
Is it known why people who can have their bowel movements checked for free do not take such a life-saving test?
“Research has been done in Italy. Most common reason: No one had ever said it existed and that it was so important. So informing people is super important. The test itself is shit-simple. I know, you have to be a little bit handy with that collection paper on the toilet bowl. People sometimes say to me, “Doctor, I just put Het Belang on the bathroom floor and picked up everything like that.” Then I always say: ‘Well thought out, but I hope you have read the newspaper first.’ ” (laughs)
Does that test actually look for blood in the stool?
“The test detects human blood that you cannot see with the naked eye. That blood can come from, among other things, early colon cancer or polyps. If that test is abnormal, you have to have a bowel exam or colonoscopy and they can see where that blood comes from. About eighty percent of the people who have an abnormal test also have it checked further. Twenty percent not. If you calculate it, you come up with about 300 colon cancers that could have been found if people had had the test done. So my appeal to the people is: Do! The! Test!”
North Limburg municipalities apparently score well in terms of submitting stool samples?
“It has been the case for years that in our top ten Flemish municipalities that score the best in percentage terms, there are always six to seven Limburg municipalities. I believe that residents of Kinrooi, Hamont-Achel, Bocholt, Lommel and Pelt are doing well. ”
How did that happen?
“We don’t know exactly. I once gave a lecture in North Limburg and according to a man who appealed to me at the time, people mainly participated because they are afraid of pollution from metallurgy. ‘If we can test something, then we do it’, was his explanation. Maybe a little too short-sighted, but understandable. Some municipalities also respond to this and organize such lectures. It helps, my preaching in parish halls and cultural centers. ” (laughs)
Are you no longer a practicing doctor?
“I may have more influence now than when I saw patients. Since January 1, 2016, I have been working full-time with the non-profit organization Stop Colon Cancer. It is thanks to the unconditional support of Marc Coucke that we can do this, that is sometimes said. Marc has suggested to me to go all out for this. Without him there would be no Stop Colon Cancer. ”
Ask your questions about colon cancer to specialist doctor Luc Colemont here
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