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March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and Lt. Gov. Victor Hocog pose for a photo with cancer awareness advocates and survivors after proclaiming March National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. (Dennis B. Chan)
To raise awareness for third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second most common cause of cancer deaths for men and women in the nation, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and Lt. Gov. Victor Hocog have declared March 2016 as National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month yesterday.
Cancer survivor Caesar Dumatol called on families who have lost loved ones to this disease and all committed to advance the fight against cancer through research, advocacy, and quality care.
“Together, we can build a future free from cancer in all its form,” Dumatol said, reading from the proclamation during a signing event yesterday.
Dumatol later told reporters that this cancer “should be taken seriously.”
“Survival is not high, if discovered late,” he said, adding that he was lucky to be a survivor after discovering his cancer at “Stage 3.”
Torres, for his part, said awareness is critical. “No one wants to go to the hospital. It’s perhaps the last place you want to go” but if “we detect it earlier, the better it is,” he said, encouraging that people take test and prevention methods.
The proclamation urges all men and women in the CNMI to discuss a preventative and screening program with their health care provider and join in the activities to raise awareness and prevention of colorectal cancer this month.
The survival rate of individuals who have colorectal cancer diagnosed at an early stage is 90 percent. This is only 10 percent when diagnosed after it has spread to other organs.
