Bring forward screening for the early diagnosis of colorectal cancer by 5 years, from 50 to 45, through the search for occult blood in the feces. The proposal comes from Italian oncologists traveling to Chicago for the Congress of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco).
“As highlighted by a study published in ‘Annals of Oncology’ – underlines Saverio Cinieri, president of the Aiom Foundation (Italian Association of Medical Oncology) – in 2024 the mortality rate for colorectal cancer among young people (25-49 years) in Italy will increase by 1.5% in men and by 2.6% in women compared to the period 2015-2019. However, in the age group between 50 and 69 years, included in the current colorectal screening programme, in 2024, a decrease in deaths of 15% in men and 16% in women is expected. Bringing forward the screening age for this neoplasm, therefore no longer starting from 50 years of age, but from 45, would allow more lives to be saved. “.
Even in the United States, oncologists point out, colorectal cancer is becoming increasingly widespread in the under 50s: at the end of the 1990s it was the fourth cause of death from cancer in both men and younger women, today it is the first in men and the second in women. It is no coincidence that “the new recommendations of the US Preventive Services Task Force have lowered the starting age of screening for colorectal cancer to 45 years”, remarks Cinieri who suggests following the example. “This secondary prevention program – he recalls – is able to identify, in addition to the presence of a tumor in asymptomatic people, also adenomas, i.e. polyps, potentially capable of transforming into cancer”.
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