Experts available to discuss new USPSTF recommendation to lower age for regular colorectal cancer screenings to 45

Michigan Medicine experts are available to discuss the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s new final recommendation that people with no symptoms and an average risk of developing colorectal cancer begin regular colorectal cancer screenings at age 45 instead of 50, thanks to the rise in colorectal cancer cases among the younger population.

Samantha Hendren, M.D., and John Krauss, M.D., the surgical and medical directors, respectively, of the Multidisciplinary Colorectal Cancer Clinic at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, can attest to the growing number of younger patients they’re seeing in the Rogel Cancer Center and why they believe screening will help save lives.

“We see many patients under age 50 with colorectal cancer here at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center,” Hendren says. “Some of these patients come to us with more advanced cancer, which is less likely to be cured. I know that starting screening at age 45 will prevent deaths from colorectal cancer.”

John Carethers, M.D., the chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Michigan Medicine and a professor of human genetics who studies the genetics and disparities of colorectal cancer, can speak to the impact the new recommendation will have on Black people in particular.

“Ironically, while there have been calls by several organizations over the past 10 years to move the initial screening age for Black patients to 45 years, this was controversial due to lack of real investigative data,” Carethers says. “All races and ethnicities should benefit from the USPSTF recommendation to begin colorectal cancer screening for all groups at age 45, which will lower the consistent burden among Black patients and the emerging elevated burden among non-Black patients, saving lives.”