As more people aged 45-49 are getting screened for colon cancer, more early stage diagnoses are being made, according to new research from the American Cancer Society.
The research, published in two studies Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed increases in screenings among those younger than 50 is linked to rises in earlier diagnosis. One study showed an annual increase of 1.1% from 2004 to 2019 jumped to 12% from 2019 to 2022 for colorectal cancer incidence among people aged 45 to 49, while another study showed screenings among U.S. adults aged 45 to 49 increase 62% from 2019 to 2023.
The recommended age to begin colorectal screening was lowered from 50 to 45 by the ACS in 2018 and by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in 2021.
Weirdly, at least for breast cancer, it seems now that early stage cancer is more prevalent than full blown cancer. (Number of early detection has increased over the last years but the number of late detections has been stagnant)
This bring to two possible conclusions:
there is a natural way to recover from early stage breast cancer (and not from late stage) or at least stay at that stage for ever
early screening is a bad idea because it brings patients to undergo treatment while the might have healed on their own
Unfortunately, we still have no idea how to distinguish people that benefit from early detection from people that don’t.
Similar to prostate cancer.
Ugh, I’m going to need to start getting mammograms next year. The female body is bullshit.