Health
Colorectal cancer screening guidelines updated
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Oct. 27, 2008
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force issued new recommendations Oct. 7 for colorectal cancer screening. The recommendations will be published in the Nov. 4 Annals of Internal Medicine.
Task force members gave approval to fecal occult blood testing, sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy for adults ages 50 to 75. They declined to recommend routine screening for 76- to 85-year-olds but said there might be considerations that warrant testing in individual patients.
For patients older than 85, they concluded that the risks of screening outweighed the benefits.
The task force also concluded that the evidence for CT colonography, or virtual colonoscopy, was not yet strong enough to assess its benefits and harms. The same applied to fecal DNA testing.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/10/27/hlbf1027.htm.
