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Jan 3, 2020 · Colonoscopy and other invasive testing options are considered safe, but the risks of complications of the bowel preparation, the procedure, and sedation medications are all increased in older patients.
- Judy Nee, Ryan Z. Chippendale, Joseph D. Feuerstein
- 2020
Jun 23, 2022 · Bowel Cancer Australia recommends participating in screening appropriate to your personal level of risk. The decision to be screened for people over the age of 75 should be based on an individual’s preferences, life expectancy, overall health, and prior screening history.
NHS bowel cancer screening checks if you could have bowel cancer. It's available to everyone aged 54 to 74 years. The programme is gradually expanding to make it available to everyone aged 50 to 53 years.
- Overview
- To screen or not to screen?
- Recommendations unchanged
•New research suggests that for people deemed low risk, the benefits of getting screened for colorectal cancer after age 50 don’t outweigh the risks.
•However, some experts say screening is effective and they don’t think the research will change any guidelines.
•It’s still recommended that people talk to their doctors about getting screened at this age, and possibly earlier if there’s a family history of colorectal cancer.
If you’re 45 or older, the American Cancer Society recommends that you get screened for colorectal cancer.
But new research suggests that, for most people, such screening isn’t necessary.
A panel of international experts published their findings in The BMJ, a medical journal.
Regular screening for colon cancer can provide early warning signs of trouble — no small thing when about 1 in 23 people develop colon cancer during their lifetime.
The screening process can include testing fecal samples, along with visual inspections and colonoscopies.
While the process is generally safe, it can be invasive — and in rare cases, bleeding or a tear in the bowel can occur.
With this in mind, the international research group set out to determine if the benefits of screening outweighed the risks. They determined that, for people deemed low risk, it just wasn’t worth it to get screened.
The researchers noted that the vast majority of people aged 50 would be at a low risk of developing bowel cancer within the next 15 years, so they determined that screening at this age doesn’t justify the risk.
They did recommend screening for people with a 15-year bowel cancer risk above 3 percent, acknowledging that future research will yield more results.
To anyone dreading a colonoscopy or other test, this research seems unlikely to change their doctor’s advice.
Dr. Stanich said that at his institution more than 40 percent of 50-year-olds coming in for their first screening procedure have adenomas, a pre-cancerous type of polyp that can turn into cancer over time.
“It would be very concerning to me if these people weren’t coming in to get those polyps removed,” he said.
“Personalized medicine is likely the wave of the future and I have no doubt that at some point we’ll be able to personalize this for every patient and come up with an optimal time to start screening,” he added. “But I don’t think we’re there yet, and I think this is premature.”
Elena A. Ivanina, DO, a gastroenterologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, noted that the research clashes with current guidelines in the United States.
“How much should this publication affect clinical decision-making and policy? Not much, considering the recommendations are classified as ‘weak recommendations’ with substantial uncertainty (low-certainty evidence) regarding the 15-year benefits, burdens, and harms of screening,” she told Healthline.
- Dan Gray
Oct 3, 2019 · A panel of international experts has recommended against routine testing of everyone aged 50-79 for bowel (colorectal) cancer, advising that only those at higher risk should be considered for screening. 1. The advice comes as part of a BMJ Rapid Recommendation, which looked at current guidelines and evidence.
- Elisabeth Mahase
- 2019
For people ages 76 through 85, the decision to be screened should be based on a person’s preferences, life expectancy, overall health, and prior screening history. People over age 85 should no longer get colorectal cancer screening. *For screening, people are considered to be at average risk if they do not have:
Jun 28, 2019 · Colorectal cancer screening before age 50? June 28, 2019. By Andrew Chan, MD, MPH, Contributor. Editor's note: In May 2021, the US Preventive Services Task Force revised its advice regarding screening for colorectal cancer, lowering the recommended age for first screening from 50 to 45.
