(Radio Iowa) – As part of colon cancer awareness month, Iowans are being reminded of the importance of early screenings for one of the state’s biggest cancer killers. Dr. Steve Schlack-Haerer, a gastroenterologist at Gundersen Health System, says colon cancer is the third-leading cause of death in both men and women. He recommends screenings starting at age 45, and then every ten years. “The time it takes to grow from a small polyp to a colon cancer is actually a very long, slow process, we think on the order of about eight to 10 years,” Schlack-Haerer says, “which gives us about as wide of a window to find these precancerous lesions before they have a chance to ever develop into cancer.”

There are several ways to test for colon cancer, but he says colonoscopies are the best and most accurate. While everyone should get screened, some people may be at greater risk. “We say if there’s a family history of colon cancer, that increases your risk, and we go by first-degree relatives as well as second-degree relatives,” Schlack-Haerer says. “Anybody with a first-degree relative who has either precancerous polyps or colon cancer before the age of 60, we actually start their colon cancer screening at age 40.”

While colon cancer is the number-three cancer killer, he says significant progress is being made through screenings, as a decade ago, it was the second-leading cause of cancer death.  “A lot of times people say, ‘Well, I’m not having any problems or I’m not having any symptoms. I don’t need to do this,'” Schlack-Haerer says, “and the reality is that simply having colon polyps itself — and many times colon cancer as well — is below the radar.”

A few years back, colonoscopies were recommended at age 50, but that’s been pushed up five years due to a rising number of earlier cases. He says people with a family history of colon cancer should consider getting screened even sooner. “There is a higher incidence of colon cancer in our African American population, but really the reality is, it’s a risk for males, females and really can happen at any age,” Schlack-Haerer says. “We occasionally, unfortunately, will find colon cancer in people with no risk factors whatsoever and as early as 20s and 30s.”

When found early, he says the five-year survival rate for colon cancer can be well above 90-percent.

Gundersen Health System has clinics in Calmar, Decorah, Fayette, Lansing, Postville and Waukon, and a hospital in West Union.