At St. Dominic's Hospital in Jackson, a pop-up demonstration is helping educate Mississippians about colorectal screenings. Jimmie Wells is a nurse at the hospital who specializes in helping patients diagnosed with cancer. She’s walking through an inflatable tunnel that looks like a colon to help visualize the various stages of colon cancer.
“It’s nice and smooth, this is what a totally healthy colon looks like. There’s nothing here and this is actually what you want. But unfortunately, as we age there are times where you will develop these things that look like pimples. These are polyps,” says Wells. “Hopefully you’ll just have one or two, and you can get those out. But if you leave them alone, eventually they will turn into something else and turn into a cancer.”
More than one-third of Mississippians over the age of 45 have not been screened for colorectal cancer according to a 2020 report from the Mississippi Department of Health. And while the disease is easily preventable, the state maintains the nation’s highest colorectal cancer mortality rate. Wells says minorities are often at a higher risk for colon disease because they are less likely to be screened early enough to use preventative measures “...which should not happen, because if we do our colonoscopies, if we do the appropriate screening, we can actually impact and change what colorectal cancer looks like in Mississippi.”
The American Cancer Society recommends getting a colonoscopy at the age of 45, but some people with additional risk factors may need to be screened earlier in life.
