Colon cancer screening

From the age of 50, health insurance will bear the full costs of screening colonoscopy. You will need your E-Card and a referral from your general physician with the note “screening colonoscopy“.

Why a screening colonoscopy?

In Austria about 5,000 persons are diagnosed with colon cancer every year (this is about 18% of all new cases of cancer), about 3,000 die from this disease, although colon cancer can be prevented almost a hundred per cent with appropriate provision.

Following breast cancer, colon cancer is the second most common cancer in women. In men, it is the third most common cancer after prostate and lung cancer.

About 90% of colon cancer develops from benign polyps in a first stage. Through further changes of the mucosal cells a polyp can develop into a malignant colon tumor.

The risk of the occurrence is age-dependent, strongly rising from the age of 50, which is why screening colonoscopy is recommended to everybody aged 50 or older.

Firstlevel relatives (parents and siblings) or a person suffering from cancer should have a screening colonoscopy 10 years prior to the onset age of the person.

There are several ways of early diagnosis, e.g. through a faecal occult blood test. However, the most secure way is colonoscopy.