Since 1995 - Non Profit Healthcare Advice

Frequency Of Colonscopy

09/20/2011

Question:

I am a male 62 years old non smoker/drinker with a father who had colon cancer in his 70`s. In 2003 I had a routine screening colonscopy a ademona polyp was removed and found to be benign. Again in 2006 I had another follow up colonscopy. At that time 5 hypoplastic polyp fragments were removed. All were benign. In 2009 three years later I had a routine followup colonscopy with no polyps observed. I would like to know if it is safe for me to extend the colonscopy intervals to greater than every 3 years. If so how long is it safe to extend beyond the current 3 year protocol.

Answer:

As long it was a good quality prep and they reached the end of the colon, it should be ok to extend to 5 years.

For more information:

Go to the Colon Cancer health topic.