On a cold March morning, 3,000 runners, walkers, and stroller pushers approached the starting line along Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. The air was crisp and biting, the sun had already risen and it was an idyllic backdrop for a race, with the Capitol building looming in the distance. Participant age range spanned the very young and very old, with an 88-year-old grandmother being pushed in a wheelchair to smiling toddlers being pulled by their mothers in little red wagons. As you traversed the field of participants, moving through packs of bodies at the peak of physical fitness to the casual runners doing it for fun, you came to a group of people struggling to give their all.

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Standard running attire included t-shirt slogans like “Use your head get a colonoscopy,” “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, We’re concerned about the situation around Uranus” and team names like The Colonators and Up Yours. This is not your mother’s race.  All of the runners and race supporters have decided to diffuse the seriousness of the debilitating disease through humor.  Their backsides were united in the fight against colon cancer.

This is also not your typical race. It’s the 6^th annual “Scope It Out” 5K for Colon Cancer. As the number two leading cause of cancer and cancer related deaths in this country, according to Cleveland Clinic, colon cancer doesn’t discriminate. It does not favor men more or less than women; it is an equal opportunity cancer.

The American Cancer Society estimates that approximately 150,000 new cases of colon cancer will be diagnosed this year alone.  Of those approximately 50,000 people will die from this disease.

The colon, also known as your large intestine, is between five and six feet in length and is the last stop on the digestion train. After your food is digested, the colon absorbs the water and salt from the food matter and stores the solid wastes. After a period of time, your body expels the waste.

But there is another big problem with this cancer. People find it uncomfortable to discuss. There is both a stigma shrouding this disease and a barrier to discussing it. Yet, while it is an uncomfortable conversation to have, it is one that we as Americans need to have. Across the country there are colon cancer crusaders fighting hard to raise awareness and eradicate the disease. Two people in particular deserve attention - Dr. Ryan Williams, a colorectal surgeon at Cleveland Clinic, and Michael Sapienza, Executive Director of the Chris4Life Colon Cancer Foundation (http://chris4life.org) in Washington, D.C. 

For both of these dedicated individuals, it’s a cause that hits close to home. Sapienza’s mother, Christine Sapienza, passed away the day after Mother’s Day 2009 after being diagnosed with colon cancer in 2006. Sapienza formed the Chris4Life Colon Cancer Foundation to give hope to other families and raise awareness for colon cancer. Williams has been specializing in colorectal surgery since 2006 because he knew that by entering that field, “my work would have an immediate impact.”

Their joint mission, though they work independently in different cities, is to break down the hard wall shrouding the stigma that surrounds colon cancer. Sapienza’s Chris4Life has created public service announcements in which actual colon cancer patients talk about the disease.  In one PSA, a female cancer victim states, “It’s not fun to talk about, it’s not sexy.” Therein lies the problem; the notion that a disease has to be considered fashionable or “sexy” in order to garner attention and awareness is shocking, but awareness can lead to results. There are diseases and social viruses like AIDS and breast cancer that, even when diagnosed, were not talked about at all because it wasn’t socially acceptable. According to Sapienza, “the time is now to talk about colon cancer.”

A big problem lies in funding for colon and the other gastrointestinal cancer research. The Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure – while focused on breast cancer - generates more money than any other cancer foundation. But a huge discrepancy lies in funding from Susan G. Komen Foundation and the top 10 colon cancer foundations. The Komen Foundation has inserted breast cancer into many aspects of American life. During the month of October, breast cancer awareness month, the NFL wore pink, pink was on cereal boxes, pink was at Starbucks. Breast cancer is deadly, but the disease only affects 50 percent of the population, only 19 percent of the 200,000 breast cancer cases are fatal, and drew nearly $6oo million in funding in 2009, according to the National Cancer Institute. Colon cancer, on the other hand, affects both men and women, 33 percent of colon cancer cases are fatal, and in terms of government funding it received only $264 million in 2009 from NCI.

What’s so shocking and what most people aren’t aware of is that most colon cancer cancers are preventable. Williams provides a mind-boggling statistic: “Up to 90 percent of colon cancer cases could have easily been prevented if patients had just been able to get over the uncomfortable nature and the ‘ick’ factor.”  He also says that families need to start having open and honest dialogues about their family medical histories because it could save lives down the line. “We find that between 85 and 90 percent of colon cancers patients had a family history. If you suspect that there is a history of polyps, colon cancer, bowel issues, rectal bleeding, anything suspicious, keep a record, see a doctor, and get a colonoscopy.”

Doctors worldwide, Williams included, consider the colonoscopy to be the gold standard for diagnostics when it comes to examining the colon. The procedure itself is painless; patients are sedated while the doctor inserts a long flexible endoscope into the rectum. The endoscope has a camera at the end, so the doctor can see inside of your colon.  As it passes through the entire length of the colon, the doctor looks for any polyps on the lining of the colon wall. If any are found they can be removed during the procedure and sent to a lab for further analysis.

When it comes to getting patients through the door to have a colonoscopy, Williams uses a technique proven effective by mothers everywhere: guilt. “With dads, I use wanting to walk their daughter down the aisle, or the father-daughter dance; with mothers, I use seeing grandchildren grow up,” explains Williams.

 In contrast, Sapienza and his foundation, which he started in 2010, have taken a twenty-first century approach to gaining people’s awareness in getting them through the office door. They use of social media sites like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, where they have either the number one or number two colon cancer theme channel or page. Sapienza has created public service announcements in which he contrasts how little is known about key public information facts about colon cancer and getting a colonoscopy, compared to breast cancer and getting a mammogram. “We hit the streets and asked people ‘at what age do you get a mammogram?’ and ‘what color is associated with breast cancer?’ Unanimously, everyone said 40 years old and pink,” said Sapienza. “But when we asked them the same questions in relation to colon cancer, ‘um…I don’t know’ and ‘brown?’”

Blue. That is the color for colon cancer. For these two colon cancer warriors, it is the color of a hopeful tomorrow, where no man or woman will ever will have to suffer the horrible effects of colon cancer. For these two men and the many lives that they seek to touch, that day can come and when it does it will truly be an amazing feat. For them, blue is a truly inspiring color.