Increased screening for colon and cervical cancer are coming through population-based programs in the province.
Dr. Eshwar Kumar of the New Brunswick Cancer Network says these new screening programs are even more beneficial than the breast cancer screening programs.
He says they can pick up lesions in a pre-cancerous state and prevent a cancer forming and hopefully pick it up at a very early stage so it potentially becomes more curable and more treatable.
Letters will be going out to people of average risk for colon cancer in the Saint John area between the ages of 50 and 74 who will be invited to participate in the program through an at home test.
Women between 21 and 69 years of age overdue for a pap test will receive letters encouraging them to make an appointment.
