There is a form of cancer that affects millions and yet it could be prevented with a simple screening test.
It's colo-rectal cancer and the screening should be done by anyone when they reach the age of 50.
But there is a segment of the population that may be especially at risk.
"Now a special population is, their family members with colon cancer, then a patient should actually present his or her self to his primary care physician for an early assessment for whether early colon cancer screening is indicated,” said Dr. Robert Jao from Castle Medical Center.
One of the preliminaries to a colon cancer screening procedure is colon cleansing. It sounds rather arduous.
"Please don't let that scare any one. We have four choices now to clean the colon and one of the choices are pills. You can simply take a handful of pills, a little at a time and it will do the rinsing job for us very very well,” said Dr. Jao.
There are actual alternatives to a colonoscopy but there are drawbacks.
"Virtual colonoscopy for example would be able to find the polyp, but then one would have to go to a colonoscopy to get it removed,” explained Dr. Jao.
He says with the help of modern medicine, a colonoscopy can be one of the least unpleasant procedures you might go through. "Absolutely. The sedation and the anesthesia makes the whole experience actually disappear in your mind. It doesn't register in your memory."
The only thing that will register is the fact that you have peace of mind - the same peace of mind Castle CEO Kevin Roberts had after he had a colonoscopy just before his 50th birthday. "I actually went maybe three or four months before I had to or before that clock ticked. So it was nice to have that all clear. Just like that tsunami last week, when I got the all clear on the colonoscopy, I was good to go
