Feeling “scanxiety”? Here’s how to cope

In the hospital waiting room, the mature adult female surgeon smiles as she gives the unrecognizable female family member good news.

Alana Yanagida, LCSW, is a behavioral health therapist at the Inova Saville Cancer Screening and Prevention Center. The center’s behavioral health team provides counseling and guidance related to cancer screening and prevention. What is scanxiety? Scanxiety is emotional distress – fear, anxiety and worry – related to medical scans, imaging and tests. Although the term…

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Don’t Delay Your Colonoscopy

Raymond Wadlow, MD, is an oncologist at Inova Schar Cancer Institute. He is board-certified in Medical Oncology and Internal Medicine and has a special interest in gastrointestinal oncology.  You may have seen last week’s headlines questioning the importance of colonoscopies as a cancer screening test that saves lives. Yes, a recent study of nearly 85,000…

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