familial colorectal cancer
Dear Sir or Madam,
I have the following concern:
My parents and my aunt (by marriage) had colon cancer (diagnosed at around 60 years of age). As far as I know, there is no history of this in other relatives. I myself (34 years old) had a colonoscopy done almost 5 years ago, which was clear. Now I will be having another colonoscopy in about 2 weeks. My question is: did I act correctly? I read on the internet (which I probably shouldn't have done, or at least not in such detail) that there are genetically inherited forms of colon cancer (without precursors of polyps) that require much closer monitoring. For example, my father had polyps (with dysplasia) completely removed in 1995 (at the age of 51 after severe diarrhea), and never went to the doctor again (until shortly before his death) and died of colon cancer in 2009. However, he already had symptoms around 2001 (diarrhea). He also had various other problems with his stomach, small intestine, etc. I thought the appointment was just for a check-up, but now I am very scared about the appointment. I don't think his colon cancer developed from the precursors of polyps.
I don't have any major complaints myself. I feel like I need to go to the toilet occasionally, about once a week, not just once, but twice a day. The consistency of my stool varies, I have never had constipation, and diarrhea is very rare.
I would appreciate your opinion and thank you in advance!
