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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Educating SD Professionals to Prevent Cancer

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Wednesday, July 13, 2011   

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Doctors work hard to cure and treat cancer, but a national expert says a simple screening may go one step further and prevent people from developing cancer.

Dr. Durado Brooks, the American Cancer Society's national director for prostate and colorectal cancers, shared information Tuesday in Sioux Falls with a gathering of health-care professionals in Sioux Falls, advising them about steps they can take to help their patients avoid colon cancer, which he says is one of the most preventable cancer types.

"Colorectal cancer almost always starts with a small growth called a polyp, which is not cancer but grows in the colon, doesn't cause any signs or symptoms. But by finding and removing those polyps, we can actually keep people from getting cancer."

About 460 new colon cancer cases are expected this year in South Dakota, and 150 people are expected to die from it. About one-third of the population at risk will not even be screened for colon cancer, says Brooks, adding that that's why health professionals need to step in.

"People who haven't been tested will tell us over and over again, 'My doctor never talked to me about it.' So, the fact that physicians are talking to some of their patients but not all of their patients on a regular basis is one of the main reasons that people don't get tested."

If doctors and nurses are better educated about the screening, Brooks says, patients have a better chance of understanding their risks.

"Certainly, educating patients about the truth about colonoscopy - that it is not painful, that the vast majority of people who have the test afterwards say, 'Oh, they will be happy to have the test again' - it's not nearly as frightening or uncomfortable as they thought it would be."

Brooks' address was streamed live to a nationwide audience. More information is online at cancer.org.


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