Colon cancer tests should start at 45, not 50, panel advises
NEW YORK — A panel of health experts wants U.S. adults to start getting colon cancer screenings at age 45, five years younger than it previously recommended.
While overall, colon cancer rates have been declining, the draft guidelines issued Tuesday by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force reflect a growing concern about rising rates in people under the age of 50.
“We’ve seen more data showing that younger people are getting colon cancer at higher rates,” said Dr. Alex Krist, a family doctor at Virginia Commonwealth University and a member of the task force. “Basically a 45-year-old today has the same risk of getting colon cancer as a 50-year-old from years past.”
The task force is a volunteer panel of doctors that regularly reviews evidence and issues advice on medical tests and treatments.
The group is proposing that adults of average risk for colon cancer be screened from ages 45 to 75. How often the tests are done depends on the type of screening: A colonoscopy is usually every five to 10 years while stool-based tests are every year. After age 75, the task force says screening decisions should be made on an individual basis.
“Most people who get colon cancer have no signs, no symptoms and no risks. And so that’s why we recommend that everyone get screened,” Krist said.
The task force advice on screening doesn’t apply to those with colon cancer, polyps or a family history of colon cancer or genetic disorders that increase their risk. Tuesday’s proposal also emphasizes that the disease occurs more often, is screened for less and leads to more deaths in Black adults.
Colon cancer, along with rectal cancer, is the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the country, with an estimated 148,000 new cases this year.
Crews tried to beat back two out-ofcontrol wildfires in Southern California on Tuesday that have kept tens of thousands of people out of their homes even as another round of dangerous fire weather raises the risk for flames erupting across the state.
Fierce winds that drove twin fires through brushy hills near cities in Orange County a day earlier were expected to pick back up, although not to the earlier extremes, according to the National Weather Service.
Southern California Edison reported to regulators that it was investigating whether its equipment might have sparked the Silverado Fire near the city of Irvine.
With utility equipment blamed for several destructive fires in recent years, Edison was among the utilities in California that deliberately cut power to customers to prevent equipment from being knocked down or hit with debris in the winds and sparking wildfires.
Irvine residents had to evacuate after a fire broke out early Monday, while later and a few
California wildfires:
miles away, another blaze, the Blue Ridge Fire, sent people fleeing from the Yorba Linda area. New evacuations were ordered Tuesday as others were lifted. More than 70,000 people remained out of their homes.
Arrest outside U.S. Consulate:
Hong Kong police on Tuesday arrested a 19-year-old activist outside the U.S. Consulate just as he was about to seek asylum, according to an advocacy group.
The activist, Tony Chung, had previously been arrested in July under a national security law imposed on the city by Beijing earlier this year. He was accused of posting a message on social media about a new political party that called for Hong Kong’s independence from China. Chung has denied writing it.
Chung had been planning to enter the consulate and ask for protection when he was arrested at a coffee shop across the street, said Friends of Hong Kong, an activist group based in Britain that said it was helping Chung.
The South China Morning Post posted a video that appeared to show Chung being led away by a group of men in plainclothes near the consulate. A consulate spokesman said he had no immediate comment.
Renewed Syrian violence:
Opposition groups allied with Turkey lobbed hundreds of missiles and artillery rockets at government posts in northwestern Syria on Tuesday, in retaliation for a deadly attack that killed dozens of their fighters a day earlier.
The renewed violence has undermined an already shaky cease-fire in place since March that aimed to quell military operations and government troop advances in the overcrowded rebel-held enclave.
The escalation also comes as relations between Russia and Turkey, who negotiated the cease-fire, show signs of strain over Ankara’s increased military involvement in a region stretching from Syria to the Caucasus and the Mediterranean. Russia is a main supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government.
U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pederson appealed to Russia and Turkey to “contain the situation.”
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, discussed the attack in Idlib as well as the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and Libya in a telephone call Tuesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
Preelection violence: Police in Tanzania shot dead at least nine citizens amid unrest over alleged fraud ahead of the presidential election, a major opposition party asserted Tuesday, while officials denied it and one of Africa’s most populous countries watched internet service slow to a crawl ahead of Wednesday’s vote.
The other main opposition party accused ruling party officials of shooting two people dead at a campaign rally elsewhere in the country once praised for its peace but now a growing human rights crisis under populist President John Magufuli, who seeks a second five-year term.
In the semiautonomous island region of Zanzibar, the ACT Wazalendo party accused police of opening fire Monday night after residents suspected soldiers of distributing premarked ballots to polling stations designated for advance voting and tried to stop them.
The ACT Wazalendo presidential candidate in Zanzibar, Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad, was arrested Tuesday morning at a polling station as he went to vote, the party said, and police confirmed it. He later was released.
Egypt shark attack: A young Ukrainian tourist lost an arm and an Egyptian tour guide a leg in a rare shark attack over the weekend off Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, officials said Tuesday.
The attack took place Sunday when two tourists — a mother and her son — and their tour guide were snorkeling in Ras Mohammed national park, the Environment Ministry said in a statement.
An initial investigation showed that the attack involved a 6-foot-long oceanic whitetip shark, the ministry said.