By Robert Preidt
HealthDay reporter
FRIDAY, May 21, 2021 (HealthDay News) – If you’re over 75, screening for colon cancer could save your life, a new study says.
This week, the influential U.S. Preventive Services Task Force lowered the recommended age for starting colorectal cancer screening from 50 to 45 for those with no family history of colon cancer, but did not change its advice to stop routine screening at age 75.
After this age, the decision to screen may be based on a person’s health and risk factors, but there is little clear evidence for or against the recommendation to discontinue routine screening at age 75.
“Until now, there has really been no clear data that could help us decide whether patients should be screened after the age of 75,” said co-investigator Dr. Andrew Chan, director of clinical and translational epidemiology at Massachusetts General Hospital.
“This is the first empirical data to really show that it makes sense for many people to continue screening after age 75. But the main takeaway message is that screening should be tailored to individual risk factors,” said Chan in a hospital news release.
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To get answers, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed data on colon cancer cases and deaths in more than 56,000 participants who were observed in two major U.S. health studies from 1988 to 2016 and who reached the age of 75 during follow-up.
People who had colon cancer screening after age 75 had a 39% lower risk of colon cancer and a 40% lower risk of dying from colon cancer, whether or not they were screened before age 75.
Among participants who were screened before age 75, those who were screened after that age had a 33% lower risk of colon cancer and a 42% lower risk of dying from colon cancer than those who were after 75 years of age were not screened.
For people who were first screened after age 75, the rates were 49% and 37% lower, respectively, than for people who were never screened.
According to the study, published May 20 in the journal JAMA Oncology, people over 75 with heart disease, diabetes, or three or more other conditions did not get significant benefits from colorectal cancer screening after age 75.
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Colon cancer screening is most commonly done with either colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy.
More information
The US National Cancer Institute is more concerned with colorectal cancer screening.
SOURCE: Massachusetts General Hospital, news release, May 20, 2021
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