Starting Colorectal Cancer Screening at 45 Would Avert Deaths, but Testing Older Adults Would Do More

A study led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine published in Gastroenterology found more participation of older adults in colorectal cancer screening would help prevent more deaths than expanding testing to people in their 40s, reports the Stanford Medicine News Center . According to the investigators, starting routine colorectal cancer screening at 45 rather than 50 would cut U.S. cancer deaths by as much as 11,100 over five years, and would lower the number of cancer cases nationwide by as much as 29,400. However, screening a bigger number of older and high-risk adults would avoid nearly three times as many diagnoses and deaths at less cost. The researchers determined initiating colonoscopy screening at age 45 would require 758 additional colonoscopies per 1,000 people, leading to a reduction of four cancer cases and two deaths per 1,000 people. When those procedures are instead used to screen 231 previously unscreened 55-year-olds or 342 previously unscreened 65-year-olds through age 75, 13 to 14 cases and six to seven deaths could be averted per 1,000 people. They also would save $163,700 to $445,800 on balance, thanks to averted treatment costs.