For a Brother
- ‘Today’ show co-host Craig Melvin, 41, lost his older brother Lawrence to colon cancer in December at 43, and his younger brother Ryan came on the show this week to help continue the family’s mission raise awareness for the disease by getting a colonoscopy for the cameras. (During a colonoscopy, a doctor inserts a tube into the anus that can scope out the inside of the colon.)
- Ryan admitted to being anxious for the procedure, but it wound up being fine and luckily he received an all clear from the doctors. "Any time you have an outpatient procedure or anything like that where something’s going up inside of you… it’ll make you a little nervous," he said.
- Leading experts tell SurvivorNet what the (painless) colonoscopy process entails and what happens if doctors do find cancer. “Either they have symptoms, so they’ve had blood in their stool, or they’ve had some weight loss and anemia, meaning their blood count is low. The colonoscopy often will show something abnormal.”
Ryan got a colonoscopy on camera. (During a colonoscopy, a doctor inserts a tube into the anus that can scope out the inside of the colon.)
Read MoreColon cancer rocked our family after my brother Lawrence was diagnosed. He lost his battle in December. It is my family's mission to raise awareness. Today, my younger brother @RyanMelvin2 was brave enough to get a colonoscopy on @TODAYshow Proud of you.💙https://t.co/qwohBQHje0
Craig Melvin (@craigmelvin) March 5, 2021
Ryan admitted that he should have had a colonoscopy a few years ago after experiencing symptoms (that wound up being diverticulitis, a condition where you have bulging pouches in the colon wall). Ryan kept putting it off, and he was anxious about finally having his first check.
"Any time you have an outpatient procedure or anything like that where something’s going up inside of you… It’ll make you a little nervous," he said.
Craig told Ryan that he would be sedated and pointed out that his own colonoscopy was really nothing, saying that you just start “counting backwards and the next thing you know, that’s it. It’s over.”
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"We need to do better about getting ourselves screened so we can live longer and have healthier, more prosperous lives," Ryan said. Thankfully, the results of Ryan’s procedure were normal, and doctors did not find any polyps.
"I’m excited to do some good and hopefully get some folks out there to get a colonoscopy, get checked, get a physical,” he said.
Craig also announced that he will be joining the Board of Directors for the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. “I look forward to working alongside the team in memory of my brother Lawrence,” he wrote on Instagram. “We must end colorectal cancer in our lifetime. It is an honor to serve.”
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What You Need to Know About a Colonoscopy
A colonoscopy can be done for many different issues, but for a cancer screening specifically, doctors are looking for polyps, which are small growths on the inner lining of your intestine or rectum.
“When we see a polyp, we actually physically take the polyp out through the colonoscope,” Dr. Zuri Murrell from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles tells SurvivorNet. This means they put a wire through and pull the polyp out, which Dr. Murrell notes is not painful, since there are no pain fibers inside the colon.
“What happens is then when we take the polyp out, we send that to a lab. In about 5 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,” he says. “And underneath the microscope, they can decide whether or not it is early cancer or whether it is just a precancerous polyp.”
Ninety-five percent of polyps are precancerous polyps, which means it’s not cancer yet, but “it would have been a cancer ultimately if you just let it grow and grow and grow.”
Once the polyp is removed, you need to follow up with another checkup in three to five years to make sure there’s not another growth.
Looking for Polyps During Colonoscopy
What Happens if Doctors Find Cancer
“Cancers don’t spread quickly. They’ve been there for years. But I think for peace of mind, I like to try and see a patient within a week or so once they have a diagnosis or suspicion of a cancer just to kind of talk through things with them and give them a sense of what the plan is going to be,” says Dr. Heather Yeo from Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian to SurvivorNet.
Most patients get diagnosed after having a colonoscopy. “Either they have symptoms, so they’ve had blood in their stool, or they’ve had some weight loss and anemia, meaning their blood count is low,” she says. “The colonoscopy often will show something abnormal.”
Doctors will review the actual mass or polyp. “We want to look at that on the slides and actually see if we see that there’s clearly a cancer there,” Yeo says.
“Then there’s a series of tests. We usually start with one blood test. And then, we start with a CAT scan, usually the chest to the abdomen and pelvis if we’re sure that there’s a cancer there. And then, those things kind of tell us whether or not there’s a distant disease.”
Dr. Yeo says the most common places to look for distant spread are in the lungs or liver.
Colon Cancer Diagnosis What Happens After the Colonoscopy
Craig Melvin Shares a Personal Message with SurvivorNet
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