Health
Colorectal Cancer: Why Adults in Their 40s and 50s Need to Get Screened
Experts say older adults get screened for colorectal cancer at a significantly higher rate than younger adults. RealPeopleGroup/Getty Images
Experts say colorectal cancer screening rates are low for people in their 40s and 50s.
They say the lower levels are partly due to the ability to take time off work, insurance coverage, and healthcare access.
They note that colorectal cancer is treatable if detected in its early stages.
Colorectal cancer screenings save lives, but a new study suggests that middle-aged people in the United States aren’t getting the message.
Rates of colorectal cancer screening are increasing, but only around 48% of adults ages 50 to 54 received their recommended screenings in 2018 compared to 78% of those ages 70 to 75, the new study shows.
“Colorectal cancer is the third most common causeTrusted Source of cancer death in the United States, and approximately one in 20 people will be diagnosedTrusted Source with colorectal cancer in their lifetime,” Dr. Lynn O’Connor, MPH, the chief of colon and rectal surgery at Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre, New York, and St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage, New York, told Healthline.
And it’s not just an older person’s problem.
“Thirty percent of colorectal cancer diagnoses are in people under the age of 55,” O’Connor said. “The message that screening colonoscopies save lives has clearly penetrated the older age groups, However, this message does not seem to be permeating clearly through the younger age groups.”
The past few years have seen the recommended age for colorectal cancer screenings lowered from 55 to 50 and most recently from 50 to 45, per a recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
But a more robust public health messaging push may be required to get more adults to the doctor’s office for these life-saving checkups.
“The recent deaths of actors Chadwick Boseman, age 43, and Billy Kametz, age 35, have placed a national spotlight on the reality that colon cancer is no longer a disease for those over the age of 50,” Dr. Paul Johnson, a colon and rectal surgeon at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis, Tennessee, told Healthline.
“The incidence of colorectal cancer is rising among younger people, and scarier still, we, as physicians, don’t exactly know why. As a colorectal surgeon, the most common response I hear from a young patient diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer is they dismissed any potential warning sign as a hemorrhoid,” he said.
Health disparities and structural barriers
While some might assume that barriers to colorectal cancer screening are based mainly on fear of the procedure or of receiving bad news, O’Connor said those are only minor factors.
“Barriers to colorectal screening are complex,” she said. “In the younger age group who are the gainfully employed subset of the population, there may be an inability to take off work, cost, insurance coverage, lack of physician referrals, and attitudes and beliefs.”
The study showed this as well.
While combined colorectal cancer screening rates for recommended age groups were 66%, the rates for people in low-income households were 56%. For those without insurance, it was even lower, at just under 40%.
While the study didn’t cover the newly recommended 45 to 50 age range, O’Connor said it was likely there would be similarly lower screening rates in the 50 to 55 age range.
Tackling this, she said, will require a nationwide effort.
“Developing and implementing a national screening policy with a standardized screening message that can be conveyed to patients is key,” she said. “Additionally, insurance carriers need to be on the same page with offering screening at age 45 and covering it. The importance of proactive screening initiatives in underserved areas cannot be understated.”
An ounce of prevention
An important point, experts said, is that people need to know that colorectal cancer can be stopped in its tracks with appropriate screening.
“I think the most unique facet of colorectal cancer is that in the vast majority of situations, it’s preventable,” said Dr. Steven D. Wexner, the center director of Digestive Diseases & and Surgery Institute and department chair of colorectal surgery at Cleveland Clinic Florida in Weston.
“In the vast majority of colorectal cancers, the precursor to the cancer is the polyp,” he told Healthline. “If somebody undergoes a screening colonoscopy and a polyp is identified – the polyp is removed. It will not have the opportunity to progress to cancer and, therefore, the patient will never need treatment for cancer.”
“There are not many cancers where we know the sequence from benign to malignant, and we can interrupt that sequence by removing the benign precursor,” Wexner continued. “I believe Benjamin Franklin said something along the lines of an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure, and it really applies here you go into your screening colonoscopy.”
Johnson agreed.
“Up to 20 percentTrusted Source of patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer are found at advanced stages,” he said. “Early detection saves lives.”
The West African Society of Parenteral & Enteral Nutrition (WASPEN) has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to make clinical malnutrition a national healthcare priority, warning that the crisis is growing but remains largely overlooked in Nigeria’s healthcare system.
WASPEN’s Founder and President, Dr. Teresa Pounds, made this appeal on Monday during a press conference ahead of the 2025 WASPEN Clinical Nutrition Conference, scheduled for June 17–19 in collaboration with the National Hospital Abuja.
Themed “Bridging the Gap: Integrating Hospital and Community Malnutrition Care in Developing Countries,” the event aims to foster solutions for hospital and community malnutrition.
Describing malnutrition as “the skeleton in the hospital’s closet,” Dr. Pounds emphasised the need for urgent awareness, policy reform, and collaboration among healthcare stakeholders to ensure effective hospital nutrition programs.
“Many patients in Nigerian hospitals suffer from inadequate nutritional support, leading to prolonged hospital stays, increased complications, and higher mortality rates. This issue must be addressed at the highest level,” she stated.
The press conference was attended by the management of Genrith Pharmaceuticals Limited, a major partner, led by its CEO, Chief Emmanuel Umenwa.
Call for National Clinical Nutrition Policy
Dr. Pounds, a U.S.-based specialist in critical care nutrition and a board-certified nutrition support pharmacist, urged the government to implement a national policy framework to support specialised clinical nutrition interventions. She stressed the importance of integrating mandatory nutrition screening and intervention into all healthcare facilities.
She also called on the Federal and State Ministries of Health to expand and enforce standardised clinical nutrition policies, ensure hospitals conduct structured nutrition screening for all patients, makes medical nutrition therapy accessible and affordable, and support research and local production of specialised nutritional products.
She further encouraged NAFDAC, NIPRD, pharmaceutical companies, and NGOs to collaborate on research, funding, and product development to improve hospital and community-based nutritional care.
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“We need a national framework that ensures no patient suffers due to a lack of proper nutrition,” the expert stressed.
Conference to Attract Top Medical and Policy Experts
Speaking on the upcoming conference, Dr. Pounds noted that it will bring together leading medical experts, policymakers, and healthcare stakeholders to develop strategies for addressing malnutrition.
Prominent figures expected at the event include Prof. Ali Pate, Coordinating Minister of Health (Special Guest of Honour), Nyesom Wike, Minister of the FCT (Chief Host), Prof. Muhammad Raji Mahmud, Chief Medical Director, National Hospital Abuja (Host), Prof. Audu Bala, President, Nigerian Medical Association (Keynote Speaker), Pharm. Ibrahim Tanko Ayuba, President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (Guest of Honour), and Prof. Salisu Maiwada Abubaka, President, Nutrition Society of Nigeria (Guest of Honour) admiration.
Pre-Conference Activities
Prof. Raji Mahmud, Chief Medical Director of the National Hospital Abuja, represented by the Chairperson of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), Pharm. Adesola Clara assured that the hospital has the necessary facilities and expertise to host a successful conference. He emphasised that the hospital is fully prepared for the programme.
Also, the WASPEN Central Planning Committee, led by Mrs. Ghinsel Blessing, revealed that pre-conference activities will include a hands-on training workshop on nutritional kits in hospitals, scheduled for June 16, a health walk to raise awareness about hospital malnutrition, expected to be led by First Lady Sen. Oluremi Tinubu.
With malnutrition posing a silent but deadly threat to healthcare outcomes, WASPEN hopes that the Tinubu administration will take decisive action to integrate nutrition-focused interventions into Nigeria’s health policies.
The 2025 WASPEN Clinical Nutrition Conference is expected to be a game-changer in shaping the future of clinical nutrition in Nigeria and West Africa.
Two US biotech companies say the Food and Drug Administration has cleared them to conduct clinical trials of their gene-edited pig kidneys for human transplants.
United Therapeutics along with another company, eGenesis, have been working since 2021 on experiments implanting pig kidneys into humans: initially brain-dead patients and more recently living recipients.
Advocates hope the approach will help address the severe organ shortage. More than 100,000 people in the United States are awaiting transplants, including over 90,000 in need of kidneys.
United Therapeutics’s approval, announced Monday, allows the company to advance its technology toward a licensed product if the trial succeeds.
The study authorization was hailed as a “significant step forward in our relentless mission to expand the availability of transplantable organs,” by Leigh Peterson, the company’s executive vice president.
The trial will initially enroll six patients with the end-stage renal disease before expanding to as many as 50, United Therapeutics said in a statement. The first transplant is expected in mid-2025.
Meanwhile, rival eGenesis said it had received FDA approval in December for a separate three-patient kidney study.
“The study will evaluate patients with kidney failure who are listed for a transplant but who face a low probability of receiving a deceased donor offer within a five-year timeframe,” the company said.
Xenotransplantation — transplanting organs from one species to another — has been a tantalizing yet elusive goal for science.
Early experiments in primates faltered, but advances in gene editing and immune system management have brought the field closer to reality.
Pigs have emerged as ideal donors: they grow quickly, produce large litters, and are already part of the human food supply.
United Therapeutics said trial patients would be monitored for life, assessing survival rates, kidney function, and the risk of zoonotic infections — diseases that jump from animals to humans.
Currently, there is only one living human recipient of a pig organ: Towana Looney, a 53-year-old from Alabama who received a United Therapeutics kidney on November 25, 2024.
She is also the longest-surviving recipient, having lived with a pig kidney for 71 days as of Tuesday. David Bennett of Maryland received a pig heart in 2022 and survived 60 days.
The Swiss government said Thursday it aimed to overhaul its law on medically-assisted reproduction to legalise egg donations and give broader access to sperm donations.
Currently egg donations are not allowed and only married couples can access sperm donations.
The Swiss parliament has long said it wants to change that, and has asked the government with coming up with a proposal to provide broader access.
A government statement said it had “decided to completely revise the law on medically assisted reproduction in order to adapt it to the current context” and had asked the interior ministry to draft a proposed law by the end of next year.
The government said it wants to legalise egg donations in cases where a woman in a couple is infertile, as a parallel to the already legal use of sperm donations in cases of male sterility.
Bern said its priority was “the protection of donors and the welfare of the child”, stressing that “this protection cannot be guaranteed if parents resort to egg donation abroad”.
The government also said it wanted to expand access to both egg and sperm donation to unmarried couples.
After Switzerland legalised same-sex marriage in 2022, married lesbian couples have also had access to sperm donations.
But the government said the current law barring unmarried couples from access to such medically assisted reproduction was “outdated and no longer corresponds to social reality”.
