Meet The Almost Silent Killer Of 50,000 Americans Yearly: Colon Cancer

It doesn't discriminate... we all have a colon and the only well documented way to decrease your chances of developing colon cancer is to die before you reach your fifties.

Is it the stigma of talking about the lower gastrointestinal track?

Is it the ostrich syndrome?

Whatever it is that's keeping us from learning about how to avoid, diagnose and treat colon cancer, it's killing way too many of us this year.

In this video, experts from The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy seek to dispel the myths about colon cancer.

First off, we learn it's both preventable and curable.

But colon cancer is still the second leading cancer killer among men and women in the United States.

The experts say colon cancer is largely preventable with regular screening, and is curable with early detection. The good news is that a recent study by leading cancer groups discovered that deaths from colorectal cancer in the U.S. are down nearly five percent, which is more than the other leading cancer killers: lung, breast and prostate cancers.

The key factors credited with the decline are prevention through screening and the removal of pre cancerous polyps.