Sanford Health sending colon cancer screening tests to Fargo patients

FARGO — Sanford Health is trying to get more people to screen for colon cancer. This week, the health care provider is sending messages to about 14,000 Fargo patients. All of them fit the criteria of being at average risk for colon cancer and have not been screened before.

Those who do not opt out will be sent a Cologuard testing kit, which can be taken at home. The chair of Sanford's gastroenterology department said another goal is to free up colonoscopy waiting lists. "There just isn't capacity to offer everybody a colonoscopy that needs to be screened.

And so this is one of our initiatives here at Sanford is we want to get as many people that are eligible for screening to be screened," said Dr. John Bassett, Sanford Gastroenterology Department Chair. Bassett said about one-third of the eligible population has not been screened.

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