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It might be cancer. Those words are not easy to hear. Especially if you're faced with the possibility of a large operation to find out. Doctors at Mayo Clinic are striving to make complicated surgeries easier on patients. They're using technology that allows a more rapid recovery, less pain and the chance to get back to life as usual faster than standard operations.
Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in this nation, right behind lung cancer. Screening tools like colonoscopy may save your life. That's because if caught early, colon cancer can be curable. Traditional surgery for this tough cancer includes a long incision, about a week in the hospital and weeks of recovery at home. But now, a national study led by doctors at Mayo Clinic shows that a less-invasive approach to surgery is safe, and it gets patients back to a normal life faster.
It kills half of its victims. Colon cancer. But you can beat colon cancer if it's diagnosed early. In fact, you can even prevent colon cancer from developing if you're screened properly. So how do you know when to be screened or what type of test you should take? Here are some answers to those questions.
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