Dr. Adam Riordan Joins X101 for Your Care with Guthrie

Matt Brooks: [00:00:00] X 1 0 1 Always classic 1 0 1 .5 fm. I am Matt Brooks for another segment of your care with Guthrie. Now with me on the line is Dr. Adam Riordan. Gastroenterologist at Guthrie. Now first off, thank you for joining me for your care with Guthrie Doctor.

Dr. Adam Riordan: Thanks so much for having me.

Matt Brooks: All right, well let’s get right to it.

You’re a gastroenterologist and we’re gonna be talking about colorectal cancer. And first off, how common is this particular type of cancer?

Dr. Adam Riordan: It’s disturbingly common. The lifetime risk of actually developing colorectal cancer is as high as 5%.

Matt Brooks: Wow.

Dr. Adam Riordan: So that’s about one in 24. To give you an idea, there’s about 150,000 cases of new.

Colorectal cancer, they’re diagnosed every year. The rate is actually going down for some folks because of better detection, but increasing for folks under the age of 50, and it is now the most common cancer death in people under the age of 50. After the age of 50, lung cancer is the most common cause of death by cancer related deaths.

Matt Brooks: That’s staggering. And you’re [00:01:00] saying that there’s. Better technology to help detect this particular type of cancer. Are there any signs or symptoms to, to keep an eye out for, colorectal cancer?

Dr. Adam Riordan: Yeah, the first thing is most people don’t have symptoms. Unfortunately, you think of the colon as kind of this big.

PVC pipe and a lot can happen in there and people don’t even know it. And that’s where, kind of the services that Guthrie provides. Screening are really a benefit, but there are some so-called alarm features to look out for. Some of these are a dramatic change in your bowel habits, meaning more diarrhea, more constipation.

Rectal bleeding of any sort needs to be investigated, so any blood, even on the toilet paper or any type of bleeding should be, investigated or a very dark stool that’s pitch black. Should be investigated as well. Abnormal pain, unexplained weight loss, or the feeling of not being able to get everything out when you go to the bathroom.

These are all kind of feature out an investigation and definitely warrant an office with visit with us for further investigation.

Matt Brooks: And it’s to my understanding as well that these [00:02:00] screenings that you need, they actually moved back the age, I believe it’s 45 now.

Dr. Adam Riordan: That is correct. So in somebody with no family history or genetic risk factors, we recommend screenings starting at the age of 45.

Now. If those signs and symptoms that I mentioned may prompt an earlier evaluation and definitely seek, an investigation or an office visit with us, if you have any of those signs or symptoms, even if you’re under the age of 45. But for the general population, people that don’t have any symptoms, and again.

The majority of people with colon cancer don’t have symptoms. That’s where we recommend screening at age 45, and the previous recommendation had been 50, and that’s a newer recommendation over the last few years.

Matt Brooks: Yeah. And well, speaking of scheduling an appointment, what kind of services does Guthrie provide to helping with preventing or treating colorectal cancer?

Dr. Adam Riordan: So colonoscopy is provided by Guthrie at many locations, and that is what we call the gold standard, meaning it is the most accurate and definitive test that we can possibly do for detecting colon cancer and detecting polyps, which are the lesions that [00:03:00] lead to colon cancer. And the beauty of colonoscopy is we can actually remove them at that time before they become a problem.

There are other services that Guthrie provides, including stool-based testing and virtual colonoscopy. These are available and are FDA approved, but they do have. Decreased sensitivity compared to colonoscopy. To give you an idea, the accuracy of colonoscopy is about 95% for detecting both polyps and cancer.

A Cologuard or stool test, the accuracy is only 42% for detecting polyps, 95% for detecting end stage cancer. But again, you want to try to catch these things before that occurs. And then there’s stool based testing and virtual colonoscopy. Virtual colonoscopy has a fairly good sensitivity or accuracy for detecting.

Polyps over one centimeter. It’s about 81%, but again, colonoscopy is a gold standard. And that is done locally here in Cortland. It’s done in Ithaca. It’s done at Lawrence Hospital in Binghamton. And then also, Sarah Corning.

Matt Brooks: Yeah. So no matter where you are [00:04:00] living or if you have to be somewhere specifically, there’s a, there’s a Guthrie facility that’s likely able to fit your needs.

Now we are running outta time. It’s the gold standard. So might as well talk about scheduling a colonoscopy specifically, how would one go about doing that?

Dr. Adam Riordan: So the best way is you can visit us online@guthrie.org or call 1-866-GUTHRIE, and that’s 8 6 6 4 8 8. 4 7, 4 3. And if we could just squeeze in one other question here that I just wanted to touch base on and is what are the risk factors for colon cancer?

So these things can affect that risk of the 5% of the general population. So obesity is a risk factor. Diabetes, red meat, and processed meat. Consuming a high amount of a diet with those as a risk factor. Overcooking the food and charring the food is a risk factor. Smoking is a big risk factor. Alcohol intake, any amount of alcohol is actually considered bad these days.

But alcohol does dramatically increase the risk of all GI cancers, including colon, and then [00:05:00] folks that are of American Indian descent, African American, Alaska native, and Ashkenazi Jewish. Those folks are at higher risk of colon cancer than the general population.

Matt Brooks: So it’s more important than ever to if you, especially if you have a, a family history to make that appointment.

It, I know it can be awkward, but considering the consequences of not having colorectal cancer treated, it’s worth, worth checking out and making sure that you’re in the clear.

Dr. Adam Riordan: Absolutely. And if folks do have any concerns or questions, and, and colonoscopy does sound scary at first, please come and see us.

I, we encourage folks to talk with their primary doctor or talk directly with us. And we’re happy to kind of, come up with a plan that works for you and also to lay your concerns of either the sedation of the procedure, the preparation, and other things. And usually a conversation can go a long way and, and making folks feel better about scheduling a procedure like that.

Matt Brooks: Well, I gotta thank you again for taking the time. Doctor to talk about, unfortunately, one of the most, prominent forms of cancer, but also one of the most treatable if detected early. [00:06:00] And, talk about how one would go about getting a colonoscopy scheduled.

Dr. Adam Riordan: Thanks so much. I really appreciate it.

Matt Brooks: Well, thank you. And this has been another edition of Your Care with Guthrie here, on X101 Always Classic. I’m Matt Brooks.