'potentially life-saving': polyp discovered during ryan reynold's colonoscopy spotlights importance of screening
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ryan reynolds arrives at the in america: an anthology of fashion themed met gala at the metropolitan museum of art. reuters/andrew kelly
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when actor ryan reynolds went into hospital for a colonoscopy exam on camera to highlight the importance of the procedure, it really hit the message home.
the 45-year-old free guy star and rob mcelhenney, the co-chair of his wrexham football club, teamed up with the colon cancer awareness organization lead from behind to have the exam for both of them made public with a video on youtube that’s already received more than 250,000 views.
reynolds learned critical information about his health, newsweek reports. during the procedure — where a colonscope is inserted through the anus into the rectum and colon to send a video image of the large intestine to a monitor — his doctor found and removed “an extremely subtle polyp” on the right side of reynolds’ colon.
polyps — a type of tumour — can be benign, but it can turn into cancer.
“this was potentially life-saving for you. i’m not kidding. i’m not being overly dramatic,” his doctor tells reynolds when he wakes up after the 25-minute colonoscopy. “this is exactly why you do this. you had no symptoms.”
mcelhenney also had three polyps that “were not a big deal” but were removed as a precaution.
as reynolds’ doctor explains in the video, “you are interrupting the natural history of a disease of something of a process that could have ended up developing into cancer and causing all kinds of problems. nobody would know that they had this, but he reached the age of screening — 45 — and he got a routine screening.”
the video, posted this tuesday, had been viewed 291,919 times at the time of publishing this story, along with more than 1,000 comments.
symptoms of colon cancer
some signs that may indicate colon cancer, according to colorectal cancer canada, include unexplained changes in bowel habits, such as constipation or diarrhea; changes in the size and/or shape of stools, such as being narrower than usual; the urge to have a bowel movement but nothing passes and rectal bleeding.
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screening for colon cancer can save your life
in 2018, the american cancer society (acs) updated its guidelines for recommended screening for colorectal cancer from age 50 to age 45. the move came in direct response to the increase in incidence of early age onset (eao) colorectal cancer. acs investigators in the journal of the national cancer institute in 2017 reported that rectal cancer rates are increasing particularly fast, as three in 10 rectal cancer diagnoses are in patients younger than 55.
here in canada, guidelines recommend a stool test for colorectal cancer every two years for those aged 50 to 74 who are not at high-risk for colorectal cancer, according to the canadian cancer society. and follow-up for a positive test (one that shows blood in the stool) should include a colonoscopy or flexible sigmoidoscopy.
people who are high-risk include those with a parent, sibling or child with colorectal cancer, a personal history of colorectal cancer or non-cancerous polyps in the colon or rectum, people who have inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis or crohn’s disease) or inherited conditions, such as familial adenomatous polyposis (fap) or lynch syndrome (also called hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer, or hnpcc). those in this category may need to be tested more often and at an earlier age.
testing is important, advises colorectal cancer canada, since most colorectal cancer deaths could be avoided if everyone aged 50 years and older underwent regular screening tests.
karen hawthorne is a toronto-based writer.
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