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Bakersfield doctor discusses preventing colorectal cancer

Free colon cancer screenings, presentations held throughout March
Posted at 10:45 AM, Mar 16, 2021
and last updated 2021-03-16 17:44:41-04

(KERO) — As part of Colon Cancer Awareness Month, 23ABC talks to Kaiser Permanente Gastroenterologist Doctor Carlos Rodriguez about the importance of getting tested.

It's one of the most preventable cancers, but you need to get screened.

Researchers are finding colon cancer is on the rise in young people, with those born in 1990 two-times more likely to get diagnosed than someone born in 1950.

Nationwide, Black Panther start Chadwick Boseman's death to stage 4 colon cancer at 42 put into focus the alarming fact for this condition on the rise.

Factors like family history, obesity, smoking and alcohol use could make a patient high-risk, but ultimately researchers are still searching for the reason leading to such a significant increase.