While some enjoy the basketball madness, Heloisa Soares, MD, PhD, gets excited about March’s status as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. “Colorectal cancer is one of the cancers that we can actually prevent,” she says. An awareness month, she says, helps to remind people to talk to their health-care providers about screening colonoscopies.

Soares treats gastrointestinal cancers—cancers of the digestive system—and she is part of the Gastrointestinal Cancers team at The University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center. She says screening colonoscopies can find polyps, which are small growths that can evolve into cancer. Removing polyps from the colon and rectum can prevent cancer from taking hold: “And then [the patient] might never have to deal with cancer later.”

Most insurance policies cover screening colonoscopies. And, New Mexico offers programs to help those who are uninsured or underinsured get colorectal screening.

Even those already diagnosed with colorectal cancer can benefit greatly from the progress made in treatment. If the cancer remains confined to the colon or rectum, Soares says overall survival rates can run as high as 90%. “Even patients with more advanced disease can have very good survival rates,” she says, “and some can be cured.”

Knowing your risk for colorectal cancer can affect the timing of your screening. National guidelines recommend screening to begin at age 50. But for those with a family history or at higher risk, screening should begin at an earlier age. Soares says people can reduce their risk for colorectal cancer by exercising, eating a balanced diet, and living a healthy lifestyle.

Cancers of the colon and rectum are the third most common cancer in men, after cancers of the lung and prostate. In women, colorectal cancers are also third most common, after breast and lung cancer. According to New Mexico Tumor Registry data, New Mexico mirrors the national rates for colorectal cancer, although some populations in the state have higher rates than others.