Chemoprevention

• Medicine Net reports that chemoprevention--the use of drugs with chemotherapy--may be successful in preventing colon cancer. A new estrogen receptor, Raloxifene, has been shown to reduce the incidence of colon cancer considerably, according to Medicine Net. Commonly used for preventing breast cancer, this drug has shown efficacy in preventing colon cancer, as well. In addition, since the year 2000, new cytotoxic agents such as capecitabine, irinotecan and oxaliplatin, along with biologic agents like bevacizumab, panitumumab and cetuximab, have been combined with chemotherapy to significantly reduce colon cancer occurrence.
  
  

Screening

• Screening is still the best way to prevent the occurrence and growth of colorectal cancers. A colonoscopy is a well established method of detecting cancer cells. Since their advent, colonoscopys have become more advanced and now not only detect an existing malignancy, but also potential ones. It is still the only method that screens, diagnoses and offers therapeutic treatment of the entire colon area. This is a great way to prevent cancer, because if you know you are at a higher risk for colon cancer as a result of a colonoscopy, suitable modifications can be made to make sure the risk is eliminated. However, despite its efficiency, less than two-fifths of those who are at risk get screened. Until the late 1980s and early 1090s, there were some reservations about this procedure because of a couple of limiting factors. First, the procedure was very painful when it was introduced in the late 1970s. Another factor that made people apprehensive about subjecting themselves to this procedure is that it was extremely expensive and most insurance companies did not cover the test. Since the 1990s, this has changed. Advances in anesthesia management have made the procedure much less painful and cumbersome than it used to be. The test now costs a fraction of what it used to earlier, and is covered by most insurance companies.
  
  

Advances in Treatment

• Advances have also been made in stopping the spread of colon cancer once you are diagnosed. According to the National Institutes of Health, new chemotherapy drugs, Camptosar Avastin and Erbitux, are considered an exciting find in reducing the growth of metastatic cancer cells. These medicines are known to prevent the spread of only metastatic colon cancer, however, they are not known to actually prevent the occurrence of colon cancer itself.