The American Cancer Association recently changed its guidelines, recommending that patients get a colonoscopy at age 45, down from age 50.This enables doctors to have a better chance to catch and treat cancer earlier, and leads to better outcomes.

At Mount Sinai, we are treating colon cancer patients with innovative, minimally- invasive colectomy surgeries. The recovery time is generally only about three days.

Dr. Kfir Ben-David, Chairman of Surgery and General Surgery Program Director, Mount Sinai Medical Center recently removed half of a patient’s colon, by making very small incisions.

The patient, a Hispanic woman in her late 50’s,never received a routine colonoscopy at age 50. At age 57, the patient went to her GI physician at another hospital. The physician did a colonoscopy and detected colon cancer, which was treated by Dr. Ben-David with this minimally invasive surgery.

Dr. Ben-David removed her right side of her colon and made the anastomosis (surgical connection) inside the patient’s belly, which requires special expertise. Most surgeons remove the colon from the patient’s body and they make the connection on the outside requiring a bigger incision to do this. His method led to an ideal outcome, smaller incision to remove the cancer and better recovery time.

While this patient had a wonderful outcome, and minimal recovery time, Dr. Ben-David stresses the importance of early screening at age 45 to ensure the best possible outcome for patients.