Reminder: Colon cancer screening made easy via Center for Healthy Living’s Cologuard campaign

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, which is a great time for individuals to take advantage of lifesaving colon cancer (also referred to as colorectal cancer) screening options. As a reminder, the Center for Healthy Living (CHL) on Purdue’s West Lafayette campus – in conjunction with Cologuard and Exact Sciences – is again offering Cologuard, a noninvasive stool-based test that detects blood and abnormal DNA associated with colon cancer and pre-cancer.

“Human Resources – Benefits and the Center for Healthy Living are committed to helping make colon cancer screening easy and accessible to Purdue employees,” said Candace Shaffer, senior director of benefits in Human Resources. “To fulfill that commitment is one of the reasons we are continuing the collaboration with Cologuard. It also provides us the opportunity to offer an additional preventive screening to our population. We’ve seen increased screening mammogram rates due to our screening mammogram program, and we hope for a similar experience with colon cancer screenings for our population with the Cologuard option in place.”  

The screening campaign also directly aligns with the Healthy Boiler Program’s physical health pillar, which supports and encourages preventive care – among other things – in an effort to help individuals achieve lasting physical health and overall well-being. 

Cologuard is not intended for high-risk individuals; therefore, if any of the scenarios below apply to an individual, they are not eligible to receive Cologuard. Eligible applicants should complete a pre-screening questionnaire on the Healthy Boiler Portal. The screening can be found under “Engage” on the Healthy Boiler Portal’s homepage. 

Per insurance and testing purposes, the Cologuard screening program is not for persons who have any of these factors:

• Less than 50 years old.
• Personal or family history of colon cancer.
• Personal history of inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis or colonic polyps.
• Cologuard within the past three years.
• Normal colonoscopy within the last 10 years.
• Greater than 85 years of age.

“Screening is the best way to prevent colon cancer,” Shaffer says. “And we hope that our Purdue community will take advantage of this ongoing campaign to learn where they stand in regards to their colon health. We are excited to be able to offer this type of screening option to Purdue’s population.”

For more information, visit the March is Colorectral Cancer Awareness Month webpage or call CHL at 765-494-0111.