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Doctors recommend certain screening tests for healthy people with no signs or symptoms in order to look for signs of colon cancer or non-cancerous colon polyps. Colon cancer diagnosis usually involves a colonoscopy as well as blood tests. Sometimes the first test may be detecting blood in your stool, especially if you have anemia. During a colonoscopy, a long, flexible and slender tube attached to a video camera and monitor is used to view your entire colon and rectum. If any suspicious areas have found, your doctor can pass surgical tools through the tube to take tissue samples or biopsies for analysis and remove polyps. Although no blood tests can tell you if you have colon cancer, your doctor may test your blood for clues about your overall condition, such as kidney and liver function tests. Colon cancer can sometimes cause elevation in certain tumor markers in your body. The most common tumor marker for colorectal cancer is the CEA, carcinoma embryonic antigen. An abnormal CEA level may suggest the diagnosis of colorectal cancer, but this should not be used alone to screen for colorectal cancer. Tumor markers may be normal in someone who has cancer and may be abnormal in someone who does not have cancer. Tumor markers may be used to monitor patients who are already diagnosed with colorectal cancer to determine the response to treatment or to see if the cancer might have returned.
