How often for colonoscopy?

I wouldn't say I enjoyed it but I prefer it to breast biopsies. They do give you good drugs(w/colonoscopy).

I was told 10yrs & that's with a family history of colon cancer & personal history of colon polyp(benign-ish) at age 32........... long story for why they even went looking at age 32.

I had a colonoscopy almost 2 years ago now, and I had polyps, which were removed and found to be benign. Because of those polyps, and because of my BC history, I was told to come back in 2 years(this October). If I have no polyps this time, it will go to 5 years for the next one.

Mary 

Thanks jacee! I didn't know that PET can distinguish between benign and cancer. 

Kicks...I got the info from the Univ of Maryland Med. Center website....

"A PET scan can identify whether the mass is cancerous because it will pick up the radioactive glucose and be seen on the scan results. If, however, the mass is scarring caused by the radiation treatments, no glucose uptake will be seen in the area of the mass.



PET can be used to image tumor response to therapy and to detect recurrence in successfully treated lesions. After surgery and other treatments, PET is an extremely important tool in monitoring whether any cancer cells have returned and if treatment should be re-started.

Colorectal cancer rarely recurs after 5 years; thus most patients who live 5 years without recurrence are considered cured. In the interim, however, make sure that PET is a part of your regular testing."



I guess as always with bc, there are exceptions....as in your case.

I know this thread is old but came across it because I was searching for posts on frequency of colonoscopies for BC patients (I had my first today and was put on the 5 year schedule due to BC - no other risk factors).

I just wanted to comment on the posts that suggest that scans etc. would pick up colon cancer and so it isn't necessary to have a colonoscopy if you're being scanned regularly as a result of your BC diagnosis.  The beauty of a colonoscopy is that it is preventative - not just diagnostic.  Precancerous polyps are removed and therefore don't ripen into cancer.  By the time a mass is detected (or blood is present in a fecal sample), cancer may already be present.

My husband had stage 4 colon cancer and just had a bill rejected  by our INS co after having a 2yr  follow up (they said @ 5 yrs was normal for ' regular' ppl!)

This is no joke ladies- I am just warning you to get pre approval before you have them done on a more regular basis.

My paternal grandmother & aunt had colon cancer. I've had ovarian cancer & I did have polyps on my first colonoscopy last year. They said return in five years. My PCP says we may talk about repeat in three.

Lots of misconceptions.

Colon cancer screening, once you get past the basics, is actually a little tricky and individualized.  What the endoscopists ar looking for are cancers or adematous polyps.  There are also hyperplastic polyps, which really in the colon cancer screening world don't count as polyps.  There are folds that look like polyps but are nothing.  

What matters is the procedure report and the pathology, those fall into three general categories:  

        1)  Normal, which can mean that no polyps were seen so no biopsies were done, OR that a "polyp" was seen but it              didn't turn out to be "adenomatous."  People with normal colonoscopies are generally told to have another in 7 -10 years, unless there is some other unusual circumstance.  Doctors don't refer to people who have had a non-adenomatous pathology result as having the problem of "colonic polyps," but often patients get confused, which is understandable.

        2) Adenomatous polyps, which are always benign.  If they were not benign, they would be called cancer.  How soon a person needs another colonoscopy after this finding really varies.  Some of it is based on algorithms, but some if it is physician judgement.  How many polyps were there?  Was it a good prep, or did stool obscure a lot of what the endoscopist was looking at?  Did the endoscopist suspect a polyp may not have been removed entirely?  Was a polyp severely dysplastic?  Follow-up intervals can range from one month to 5 years.   This is why Melissa's doctors are giving her different numbers - one doctor is clearly more concerned by her overall history and the flexibility after a finding of uncomplicated polyps allows for follow-up between 3 and 5 years.

        3) Cancer

The other thing to remember is that in fee-for-service settings, endoscopists tend to bring patients back sooner than public instititions or managed care organizations.  Makes sense, they get more money.  

I'm not aware of special recommendations for breast cancer patients by any of the major GI societies.  An increased risk of cancer has to be increased enough to justify the expense and the risk of increased procedures.  Colonoscopy definitely has some risks, but at this point it's the only screening modality that can both identify and treat polyps.    

On to PET scans.

A PET scan cannot diagnose cancer.  What it measures if the uptake of 5-FDG, a glucose molecule with a tracer stuck to it.  Cells that are metabolically active, meaning they're burning up a lot of energy, take up FDG more than cells that aren't burning much energy.  Cancer cells tend to take up FDG, but if a tumor is tiny the hot spot can be too small to see on the scan.  The resolution isn't great on PET scan images.  There are also other things that are FDG-avid:  infections (white blood cells burn up a heck of a lot of energy), areas of inflammation other than infection, healing wounds.  If something is known to be a cancer, PET's are very useful for tracking it's size, and if, say in a woman with many known bone mets, more FDG avid lesions are seen, they can be fairly safely assumed to be more bone mets.  I'm really surprised the UMD patient ed site says what it does, because it's simply not true:  PET's are helpful, but they are not diagnostic, meaning they don't give the final answer about what something is.  They change the level of concern that something is cancer, either up or down, and sometimes it's enough that docs feel comfortable making an assumption, but it's not equivalent to a biopsy.