The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)—an independent, volunteer panel of national experts in disease prevention and evidence-based medicine that provide preventive care guidelines—recently published a draft recommendation for Americans to start obtaining early detection screening for colorectal cancer (CRC) at age 45, rather than at 50, which was the previous A grade standard since 2002. Public Health assistant professor Charles R. Rogers, PhD, MPH, MS, MCHES® has been endorsing this recommendation for nearly six years in numerous OpEds and peer-reviewed journal articles.
From an article in STAT magazine:
Charles Rogers, an assistant professor of public health at the University of Utah School of Medicine, said there is compelling evidence the screening age in the task force’s draft recommendations should be even lower for Black Americans because they are increasingly developing the disease at even younger ages. He pointed to examples like the actor Chadwick Boseman, who was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer at 39 and, in August, died at 43.
“I just keep continuing to see the issue getting worse and worse,” Rogers said. “Yeah, this is great that we’re going to 45. But what are we going to do for those that are much younger?” [Read More]
The new USPSTF recommendation was also highlighted by The Washington Post and many other media outlets, and is open for public comment until November 23, 2020.