There is a huge artificial intestine in Catharina Hospital’s foyer. The hospital wants to draw people’s attention to the need for colorectal cancer screening.
“It is important that people get tested in time”, Dr Lennard Gilissen explains. He is a gastrointestinal liver doctor at this Eindhoven hospital.
“In this large intestine, you can see a polyp’s life cycle. That starts with a small ‘wart'”, Gilissen says, as he walks through the intestine. “That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can grow into something bigger and more serious. It takes about ten years before a polyp grows into something malicious”.
People invited to do screen
With an examination, people can get to it in time. People between the ages of 55 and 75 are being contacted to have a colon cancer screening. Gilissen encourages everyone who receives the purple envelope through the post to have the test done.
“A lot of people may find it scary, but it is only a small percentage of people that actually has something wrong with them. And even then we often find out far enough ahead of time. We can easily remove the malicious polyps”.
Source: Studio040
Translator: Bob
Editor: Melinda Walraven
