Colon cancer is common and often fatal, but early detection can be key to survival.

There is a new tool that doctors said could make early detection easy.

Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital have created a web-based questionnaire that should figure out if somebody's at genetic risk for colon cancer.

The questions are about personal and family health history, and your score tells you if you should consider getting a blood test to confirm your genetic test.

"The genetic test doesn't mean that you're at risk for cancer and hopefully with this information, we'll be able to prevent cancer from ever happening," said Dr. Sapna Syngal, a cancer researcher.

For the online colon cancer questionnaire, go to www.dfci.org.

For more information about colon cancer, go to www.genetichealth.com.

For more information about genetic testing for colon cancer, go to www.mayoclinic.com.