A national panel of medical experts recommended in October 2020 that most Americans start being screened for colorectal cancer five years earlier than called for in current guidelines — at age 45 instead of 50 — to combat increasing rates of the illness in younger people.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent group of physicians that provides guidelines on preventive care, noted that it was especially concerned about increasing cases among Black Americans, who are at higher risk of developing colorectal cancer early and dying from it.
“Black men and women are disproportionately affected, both in terms of the development of colorectal cancer and unfortunately they have lower survival rates with colorectal cancer,” said John Wong, a physician at Tufts Medical Center in Boston and a member of the task force. “That disparity, relative to other racial and ethnic groups, is an important part of our recommendations to lower the screening age at which to start.”
See “Colorectal cancer screening should start five years earlier — at 45 — expert panel says” by Nicholas St. Fleur on the State website (October 27, 2020)
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