Do Your Family History

By uclahealth • March 20, 2019

“I’m the poster child for why you get your colon cancer screening,” says Angela Deaver Campbell who was 50 years, 3-months-old when she got a colonoscopy. “They discovered a polyp that looked suspicious. It was cancer. I had surgery, which ended up being a colon resection because they found the polyp had gone awry where the large intestine meets the small intestine. I think they took out one foot of my colon. Colon cancer is very slow growing, and my doctor told me that polyp had been growing anywhere from eight to 12 years. I didn’t realize that colon cancer ran in my family. My aunt said she had been getting screened since she was 35-years-old. So you have to do your family history. If you really want to take care of your health, knowledge is power.”