{"id":147897,"date":"2026-03-03T21:54:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T02:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=147897"},"modified":"2026-03-03T21:54:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T02:54:39","slug":"you-win-when-colonoscopies-are-more-convenient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=147897","title":{"rendered":"You Win When Colonoscopies Are More Convenient"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday screenings offer another opportunity to prevent colon cancer<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (Mar. 3, 2026)\u00a0<\/strong>\u2014 If you\u2019re busy during the week, now you can schedule your colonoscopy on a Saturday. In recognition of Colon Cancer Awareness Month, Jefferson Health is making colonoscopies available every Saturday in March at various locations throughout the Lehigh Valley region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team has pulled out all the stops to break down the barriers and make colonoscopies more convenient for our health care colleagues and the community,\u201d says Stacey Smith, MD, Chair, Department of Medicine and Chief, Division of General Internal Medicine with LVPG Internal Medicine\u20133080 Hamilton Blvd., Allentown.<\/p>\n

Hazleton resident Lisa Marie Halecky can attest to the importance of getting this lifesaving screening.<\/p>\n

She had her first colonoscopy at age 47. Fortunately she did, because her surgeon found and removed three polyps during the screening. These are small clumps of cells in the lining of the colon or rectum that are usually harmless but can develop into cancer over time. Halecky\u2019s surgeon removed polyps at her next two colonoscopies as well.<\/p>\n

Colonoscopies are opportunities
\n<\/strong>Colon cancer is unique in that polyps serve as a warning. Doctors can find and remove polyps during a colonoscopy before they pose a serious risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther common cancers like those of the lung, breast, prostate or pancreas do not have an identifiable precancerous stage that can be addressed to prevent the cancer from occurring in the first place,\u201d says Anthony Auteri, MD, Chief, LVPG Gastroenterology.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause colon cancers almost always start as benign polyps that grow for many years before turning cancerous, colonoscopy and removal of polyps can actually prevent colon cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

For this reason, regular screenings are an opportunity.\u00a0\u201cUnlike most other common malignancies where the goal is early detection, the goal of colonoscopy screening is prevention,\u201d Dr. Auteri says. \u201cFinding an early colon cancer is not viewed by us as a win, but rather a lost opportunity to prevent that cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are no good excuses
\n<\/strong>Now that rates of colon cancer are rising in younger people, age recommendations for colonoscopy were recently reduced to age 45 from age 50. Health care teams are constantly working toward awareness and countering the reasons people put colonoscopies off, such as, \u201cI don\u2019t have symptoms\u201d \u2026 \u201cI have no family history\u201d \u2026 or \u201cI don\u2019t want to drink all that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cColon cancer often has no early symptoms, and about 70 percent of cases are not genetic,\u201d Dr. Smith says. \u201cAs far as the preparation, there are newer, faster and lower-volume colonoscopy prep options available now that make the process more comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Halecky says the screenings are far better than the possible alternative.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say if you\u2019re in the age range, you should speak to your clinician about getting the screening done. If you\u2019re clear, you don\u2019t have to go back for 10 years,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd if you\u2019re not, you may have started saving your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

About Jefferson\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jefferson is reimagining healthcare and higher education to create unparalleled value throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey. More than 65,000 people strong, Jefferson is dedicated to providing high-quality, compassionate clinical care for patients; making our communities healthier and stronger; preparing tomorrow’s professional leaders for 21st-century careers; and creating new knowledge through basic\/programmatic, clinical and applied research.\u00a0Thomas Jefferson University<\/a><\/u>, home of Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Jefferson College of Nursing, and the\u00a0Kanbar\u00a0College of Design, Engineering and Commerce, dates back to 1824 and today comprises 10 colleges and three schools offering 200+ undergraduate and graduate programs to more than 8,300 students.\u00a0Jefferson Health<\/a><\/u>, nationally ranked as one of the top 15 not-for-profit health care systems in the country and the largest provider in the Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley areas, serves patients through millions of encounters each year at\u00a033\u00a0hospital campuses and more than 700 outpatient and urgent care locations throughout the region.\u00a0Jefferson Health Plans<\/a><\/u>, through Health Partners Plans, Inc., is a not-for-profit managed healthcare organization offering a broad range of health coverage options to more than\u00a0370,000 members\u00a0for more than 40 years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nPriscilla Turbitt<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday screenings offer another opportunity to prevent colon cancer\u00a0 ALLENTOWN, Pa. (Mar. 3, 2026)\u00a0\u2014 If you\u2019re busy during the week, now you can schedule your colonoscopy on a Saturday. In … Continue reading You Win When Colonoscopies Are More Convenient<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142100,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/jefferson-a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147897"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=147897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/142100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=147897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=147897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=147897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}