Colon cancer rates decline sharply in USA

Report links increase in screenings to drop

Colon cancer rates have fallen by 30% in the past decade in people over age 50, and colonoscopies are getting much of the credit, according to a report released today.

“This is one of the great public health success stories of the decade,” says Richard Wender, chief cancer control officer at the American Cancer Society, whose researchers wrote the report, published in Cancer.

Doctors recommend that people at average risk begin getting screened for colon cancer at 50.

Screening rates have climbed in recent years. The number of Americans ages 50 to 64 who have had a colonoscopy — which allow doctors to detect and remove polyps before they turn malignant — has nearly tripled, growing from 19% in 2000 to 55% in 2010. Use of colonoscopy also rose among those age 65 and older, growing from 55% in 2000 to 64% in 2010, according to the new report. To further reduce colon cancer cases and deaths, the American Cancer Society has set a goal of screening 80% of eligible people by 2018.

Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in the USA. The cancer society estimates that 136,830 Americans will be diagnosed with it this year and that 50,310 will die from it.

“We hope that we get the number much closer to zero by getting the at-risk population access to colorectal cancer screening,” says Arun Swaminath, a gastroenterologist and director of inflammatory bowel disease at New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital, who wasn’t involved in the new study.

Death rates from colon cancer also have fallen, declining at a rate of about 3% a year over the past decade, the report found. Colonoscopies can cut mortality by allowing doctors to find tumors when they’re more curable.

“It’s really reassuring that we are making progress,” says Charles Fuchs, chief of gastrointestinal oncology at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who wasn’t part of the study.

The biggest declines in colon cancer incidence were in people older than 65, who qualify for Medicare, which makes colon cancer screenings available for free. Those who have other forms of insurance also can get free screenings under the Affordable Care Act.