Have you been tested for the cancer gene?

[Possegal]

Ah, there's also a way to collect a sample and mail it in rather than do the colonoscopy. That's been sitting in an envelope waiting for me to do that. This may be TMI but you can mail in a sample to a lab rather than the colonoscopy. I don't know which is more effective but for sure something is better than nothing.

Just to clarify, the colonoscopy is most definitely more effective. They can biopsy anything suspicious while they are in there. It's one reason it is the far better method than the fecal occult blood test - which will only detect blood in your stool. If you are looking to find something early, in a pre-cancerous state, waiting for blood in your sample is not the most effective way as most polyps don't bleed. Being able to sample anything suspicious is also what makes a regular colonoscopy better than the "virtual" colonoscopy, where you swallow the camera. There are researchers developing a sample style of detection that would look for DNA of colon cancer, but that isn't available yet. Until then, colonoscopy is most definitely the most effective way to screen for, and catch colon cancer early and when it is very curable.

Though agreed, something is better than nothing.