Gloria Gives Back
- In 2017, Gloria Cruz was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer and given 6 months to live; her treatment was successful and now she’s helping others.
- Cruz was hired as a COVID-19 Patient Care Associate at a St. Louis hospital to help those battling COVID-19.
- The mother of two discovered her colon cancer after thinking she had an ulcer which turned out to be a tumor on her colon; this disease is typically detected via colonoscopy.
Cruz went to Mercy South in St. Louis, Missouri, to get treatment.
Read More“I love helping people,” says Cruz. “It’s what I do on a daily basis whether it’s a hospital setting or at home or helping a friend out.” Cruz was brought on to the team at Mercy to provide patient care after the hospital saw a rise in COVID-19 patients being admitted.
Colon Cancer Screenings
Cruz’s cancer was detected after she went to see the doctor when she was stressed and thought she had an ulcer. But it turned out to be a tumor in her colon. She is still undergoing treatment.
Related: Colon Cancer: Overview
Colon cancer is typically detected via colonoscopy, which screens for this disease. During a colonoscopy, the doctor is looking for polyps. Polyps are small growths in the colon that are not yet cancerous but have the potential to develop into cancer.
Dr. Zuri Murrell, a colorectal surgeon at Cedars-Sinai, explains the procedure in an earlier interview. “People often ask me, what do you do when you have a colonoscopy? What’s done? Do you do biopsies?,” he says. “So a colonoscopy can be done for many things. But when we’re looking at a colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening, what we do is we’re looking for polyps, which are these small growths. When we see a polyp, we actually physically take the polyp out through the colonoscope.”
Related: How Does a Colon Polyp Turn into Cancer?
“What does that mean? That means we basically put a wire through with a little bit of a little flange at the end and we pull the polyp out,” says Dr. Murrell. “Now, note there is no pain with that.”
Getting Cleaned Out for a Colonoscopy
When a Polyp is Found During Colonoscopy
Dr. Murrell says that the vast majority of polyps 95% are precancerous. “What happens is then when we take the polyp out, we send that to a lab. In about five to 10 business days, we get the results back.”
“So when it’s in the lab, a pathologist basically cuts up the little polyp and looks under a microscope. And underneath the microscope, they can decide whether or not it is early cancer or whether it is just a precancerous polyp,” he says.
Related: "You Shouldn't Die From Embarrassment": Colon Cancer Can Be Prevented
“And what does that mean? That means that it’s not a cancer yet. But it would have been a cancer ultimately if you just let it grow and grow and grow. Well, guess what? Now that it’s out of your body, there is no more risk for that polyp to become a cancer,” he says.
Looking for Polyps During Colonoscopy
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.