Colon Cancer Among Older Americans Declining

A recent study shows that fewer older Americans are being diagnosed with colon cancer. For those aged 50 and up, findings show a 30 percent drop thanks to screenings and new uptake of colonoscopies. 

Researchers note that colonoscopy use has tripled among adults between the age group of 50 and 75, when in 2000, the screening rate was just at 19 percent. Yet by 2010, it increased to 55 percent. 

"This is one of the great public health success stories of the decade," said Richard Wender, chief cancer control officer at the American Cancer Society, via USA Today. 

Information on Colorectal Cancer statistics for 2014 show that screenings may increase up to 80 percent by 2018. 

"We hope that we get the number much closer to zero by getting the at-risk population access to colorectal cancer screening," said 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, according to USA Today. 

As colon cancer is the third most common cancer and the third leading cause of death in the United States, screenings can help to catch precancerous polyps with the potential to turn into invasive cancer. 

Health officials note that if detection of cancerous areas are caught early, treatments can be more successful, and potentially, more life-saving. 

More information regarding the study was based on data from the National Cancer Institutes's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Program of Cancer Registries.