Too Few Colon Cancer Screenings
Reported January 11, 2005
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Its a cancer that can be detected, yet fewer than half of patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer undergo a screening for the disease before their diagnosis. Researchers say the results of a new study show colorectal cancer screenings are underutilized.
Professional societies unanimously recommend colorectal cancer screening in older adults. Research has shown mortality and morbidity are reduced when a pre-cancerous growth is detected and treated at an earlier stage. Two of these tests include the fecal occult blood test and a colonoscopy. The colonoscopy is the most invasive, but also the most accurate at detecting a problem.
The current research was done to review the history of screenings in patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer and to look at cancer stage at diagnosis. Doctors from the University Hospitals of Cleveland and Case Western Reserve University conducted the study.
The study shows about 44 percent of patients received at least one screening test more than six months prior to diagnosis, and most often, the test was the fecal occult blood test. They also found 94 percent of colorectal cancer patients did not undergo a colonoscopy at all or did not have the procedure at all until it led to a diagnosis. As for cancer stage, the data reveals patients with a history of screenings more than six months prior to diagnosis had earlier-stage cancer and presumably more treatable disease.
Study authors conclude the use of colorectal cancer screening procedures are not being used to the level that they could be by the population. Furthermore, there are unmeasured benefits of an earlier diagnosis in patients who undergo screenings, suggesting the importance of encouraging colorectal cancer screenings in older adults.
SOURCE: CANCER, published online Jan. 10, 2005
