ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM)- According to CNN, many middle-aged adults are not being screened for colon cancer when they should.
Colon cancer screening is recommended for adults beginning at age 50.
According to a new CDC report, only half of adults in their early 50s, are up to date, compared to more than 80-percent of adults in their early 70s.
Colon cancer is the second deadliest cancer in the U.S. and the scientists say it may be because people are waiting too long to get screened.
“The U.S. preventative services task force recommends screening at age 50–that’s for both males and females. The exceptions are in African-American individuals. The recommendation is actually to start screening at age 45 for those people that have risk factors such as a family history of colon cancer. Then it changes as a recommendation to be a little bit younger,” said Michael Kochik, a Gastroenterology Fellow at Arnot Hospital.
Kochik says that colon cancer is ‘silent’ and most people don’t know they have it until cancer becomes more advanced.
