colon cancer would lead to a recommendation that family members be screened by sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy at regular intervals and that stools be examined yearly for bleeding.
Quite a few cancer risk assessment programs are available for use by the general population. But it is important to understand that the programs are designed solely to give information about the increased risks for developing specific types of cancer.
Completing a risk assessment questionnaire is not a medical procedure and such programs do not constitute the practice of medicine. No physician-patient relationship exists. There is no physical examination, no blood tests or x-rays. Nor is any information provided beyond an estimate of the relative risks of certain types of cancers and general ways in which those risks could be reduced or specific cancers detected.
