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(March 27, 2008)

More screening


From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

We hear a lot about the health things we do wrong – here’s something a lot of us are doing right. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the proportion of people age 50 and older who get screened for colorectal cancer is going up.

Those screenings are important because colorectal cancer is the nation’s second-leading cancer killer. Looking at a state-based telephone survey, the CDC’s Dr. Djenaba Joseph says screenings rose from almost 54 percent in 2002 to almost 61 percent in 2006.

``The risk of getting colorectal cancer increases with age. More than 90 percent of cases of colorectal cancer occur in people age 50 and older.’’ (8 seconds)

Some people – for instance, those with a family history – need to be screened at younger ages.

And increases in screening were smaller in racial and ethnic minorities than among whites.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: March, 27 2008