The quest to change the colon cancer screening recommendations
The faces of colon cancer are looking younger and younger. The United States Preventative Services Task Force and the American Cancer Society recommend colon cancer screening at the age of 50. Yet, dying of colon cancer at the age of 40 is no longer an exception nor is it a rare phenomenon.
Recent stats published by the National Cancer Institute show an increase in the incidence of colon cancer in people under the age of 50 from 5.8 per 100000 population in the year 2000 to 6.4 per 100000 in the year 2008. What that means in relative numbers is, based on the current US population 19,960 people under the age of 50 will be diagnosed with colon and rectal cancer this year alone. It also means that this year in the US, there will be over 5500 more cases of colon cancer in people younger than 50 years old than there were in the year 2000. In 10 years, close to 200 000 young men and women, Moms and Dads, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters etc. would have battled or will be battling Colon and Rectal cancer. The sad news is most of them will succumb to the disease generally because it will be diagnosed too late.
Isn't it time to change the colon cancer screening guidelines?
There are proximately 9000 people under the age of 50 years old that die of Colon and rectal cancer every year in the United States. Colo-rectal cancer in this age group is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage an usually only when symptoms appear. It is usually poorly differentiated hence very aggressive, therefore the chances of survival are significantly less than in older cancer patient. The life of these people could be saved by a quick , safe and simple procedure called Colonoscopy. Yet this group of people are left out of the screening process because the American Cancer Society thinks that these people are not worth saving. In other words screening people in this age group is not worth the money.
