WP: Colon Cancer: Test Blacks Sooner

[DeepModem Mom]

Cancer: Test Blacks Sooner
New Guidelines Advise Colon Screen at 45 to Curb Deaths

By January W. Payne
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 29, 2005; Page HE01


African Americans should be screened for colorectal cancer beginning at age 45 -- five years earlier than other people, according to new guidelines issued by the American College of Gastroenterology.

The advice is in response to previous findings that African Americans have earlier onset of the disease and higher incidence and mortality rates than whites. Experts suspect that the increased mortality rates may be due, at least in part, to inadequate access to health care and lack of proper screening, which allows doctors to detect and remove polyps that could become cancerous.

The report containing the new guidelines, which appears in the March edition of the American Journal of Gastroenterology, says most African Americans should undergo a colonoscopy every 10 years beginning at age 45. A colonoscopy allows physicians to visually examine the entire colon and remove polyps that might turn cancerous. For those considered to be at higher risk because of family history or previous polyps, testing may be recommended even earlier or more frequently....

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Despite the new recommendations, experts say it is unlikely that insurers will soon pay for widespread earlier testing. It took many years and several cancer groups' recommendations before insurance companies and Medicare began to pay for colonoscopies.

The cost of a colonoscopy generally starts at about $650 but may be twice as high, said Douglas Rex, a professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8061-2005Mar28.html