March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness month, and Joy Parmentier knows firsthand the importance of awareness. “(My brother) was diagnosed in early 2024, I believe February and he was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer. We never had colon cancer in our family before, so he was the first one,” Parmentier recalled.
Following her brother’s diagnosis, Parmentier mentioned it to her doctor, who recommended a colonoscopy every five years. “I had just had my colonoscopy about five-and-a-half years earlier with no issues so I was on the 10-year plan when you don’t have polyps or anything, so I was not concerned,” she said. However, her follow-up colonoscopy revealed a single polyp which turned out to be cancerous.
Dr. Alex Casella, a general and vascular surgeon at Aurora BayCare, explained, “The most common type of colorectal cancer usually starts as a polyp on the inside of the colon lining, and those start to grow larger and grow into the colon lining as they start to become a cancer.” He added, “It usually takes about five to six years on average for a polyp to become a cancer from start to finish. That’s why a lot of times if we have a patient with a family history of colon cancer or a personal history of polyps, we start bringing our screening intervals from 10 years to five years.”
Dr. Casella and his team surgically removed Parmentier’s sigmoid colon, and she is now cancer-free. She will return for a follow-up colonoscopy a year after the procedure. Dr. Casella emphasized the importance of knowing the signs of colorectal cancer: “Certainly, rectal bleeding is one of the big ones. Any change in bowel habit that’s unexplained, new onset constipation, severe diarrhea, rectal bleeding, weight loss, fatigue, any of those symptoms can be early warning signs that something’s going on that might be concerning.”
While Parmentier’s brother is doing well and undergoing treatment, she is spreading awareness to help others. “I’m very fortunate that it was caught early and if my brother had not been diagnosed with this, I wasn’t due for a colonoscopy for another four-and-a-half years, and we’d be having a different conversation,” said Parmentier. “After all of this, I would never go longer than the five years. When I tell a lot of people to get their colonoscopy, they say, ‘We don’t have a family history,’ and I tell them, ‘Well, someone has to start that family history,” she said.
