Over 120 interested people tested their knowledge in a "bowel quiz". Stark and Dr. Uschi Traub, Head of Health Promotion, presented the main winners, Michael Fischer from Ludwigsburg and Helga Felger from Bietigheim-Bissingen, with their prizes at the Ludwigsburg district hall. For Fischer, preventive health care is important - "I had heart problems, a skin lesion and a lump in my lung repaired in good time. For a friend, a colonoscopy led to the removal of bowel cancer before it had spread." Helga Felger wants to take away everyone's fear of colonoscopy. "My husband and I go for regular examinations and the doctors and their staff treat us with great care. Regular screening is very important to us." Over the course of a lifetime, one in 19 women and one in 15 men will be diagnosed with bowel cancer. In total, around 60,000 people in Germany are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year. Colorectal cancer claims almost ten times as many lives per year as road traffic and one hundred times as many as HIV/Aids in Germany (as of 2021). Colorectal cancer is also the second most common malignant tumor disease in women, just behind breast cancer, and the third most common in men behind prostate and lung cancer (as of 2018). The colon and rectum are mainly affected.
Until the introduction of organized bowel cancer screening in 2019, only around 35% of men and 47% of women between the ages of 55 and 64 took part in bowel cancer screening. This participation should definitely be improved, as 90 percent of these diseases can be prevented with timely screening. If diagnosed early, the chances of recovery are almost 100 percent. The statutory health insurance companies offer their policyholders bowel cancer screening. There are two different tests to choose from. One is an immunological test for hidden blood in the stool and the other is a colonoscopy. For men, a colonoscopy is offered from the age of 50, for women from the age of 55. Otherwise, an annual test for hidden blood in the stool is possible from the age of 50 to 55. If nothing is found during the colonoscopy, the next one is recommended after ten years. From the age of 55, a test for blood in the stool is possible every two years if the offer of a colonoscopy is not accepted. Anyone who chooses the stool test should be aware that 30 percent of cancers and many adenomas are not detected by the test and that the test result is often conspicuous even though there is no bowel cancer or adenoma.
