In 2025, 107,320 new cases of colon cancer in the United States are estimated to be diagnosed, according to the American Cancer Society. March is Colon Cancer Awareness Month and locally, the McDonough District Hospital is offering free screening kits, reports Vice President of Business Strategy Patrick Osterman:
“One of the things that we are going to be doing again at MDH, we are going to be handing out the colorectal screening kits. We will be handing those out at our Monmouth Clinic and also at our drive-thru on the MDH campus. We will have those available and those are a free screening test. You can pick up the test kit, just follow the instructions on the kit, and then you can mail the test results back to the MDH lab. This is just a great screening tool to try and catch that early detection or possible colon cancer. You can be really any age, but from the national news you are starting to see a lot more people 45 and older for the colonoscopies, but even if you have a family history of colon cancer, it doesn’t matter what age you are, pick up a test kit, it is free.”
The American Cancer Society reports that in the United States, colon cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men and the fourth-leading cause in women.
