Screens Work

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently said that increased screening for colorectal cancer in the US in the past 10 years has lowered both disease incidence rates and colorectal cancer death rates, says the Los Angeles Times' Thomas Maugh II. In its recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the CDC said that the prevalence rate for colorectal cancer fell from 52.3 cases per 100,000 in 2003 to 45.4 per 100,000 in 2007, as screening among adults aged 50 to 75 increased from half of the population to two-thirds. The death rate also fell from 19 per 100,000 to 16.7 100,000 in the same time, Maugh says. There are many people in the 50 to 75 age group who are not being screened, however, and clinicians are being urged to step up efforts to get their patients in for a regular checks, Maugh adds.