Early Colon Cancer Screenings Are Preventing Cases From Starting

The American Cancer Society says colonoscopies on people aged 45 to 49 increased by 43 percent from 2019 to 2023.

The findings are good news because the tests are finding cancer cases earlier when they’re more curable.

CBS News Chief Medical Correspondent Jon LaPook says it’s made a significant difference…

“Back in 2018, the American Cancer Society said, you know what, let’s start screening people at 45 if they’re at average risk rather than 50, because we’ve been seeing for many years colon cancer affecting younger and younger people for unclear reasons. OK, fine, we’ll start screening. We should pick up those cancers hopefully at an earlier stage when they’re more curable, right? I mean, if they’re in the very earliest stage, they’re more than 90% curable, and that’s exactly what happened.”

LaPook says with Colon Polyps being hard to notice, it’s more important than ever before…

“A colon polyp starts off being benign. Almost every colon cancer starts off as a benign colon polyp, and then it can be in you totally benign for years. If at any point you do a colonoscopy and you find a benign polyp that was destined to become a colon cancer and you remove it, instead of getting colon cancer, you do not get colon cancer. So it is really an amazing thing to be able to not only diagnose a polyp but at the time of the procedure take the polyp out and prevent somebody from getting cancer.”

Additionally, rates of early onset gastrointestinal cancer are rising worldwide.

Research published by Oxford University Press shows cases rising in the US and other high income countries, with people born in 1990 twice as likely to develop colon cancer as people born in 1950.

In the US, early onset colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer deaths for men under 50 and the second leading cause for women under 50.

The researchers say patients with early-onset colorectal cancers often experience delays in diagnosis because neither physicians nor patients suspect cancer.