“People at higher risk [due to] family history or symptoms should have [a] colonoscopy,” Ness said. But if you’re 45 or older with no risk factors, and you’re avoiding getting screened because of fear of colonoscopies or issues with the prep, you do have other screening options, including fecal tests and CT scans.
“The most important thing is to get your screening if you’re in the screening age,” Ness said. “The biggest problem right now… is that we’re only at about 70% of the at-risk population screened, which means that 30% isn’t. And we’ve shown that we can decrease colorectal cancer mortality by at least 50% with active screening.”
And as noted above, colorectal cancer rates in young people are rising. Just because the guidelines say you can wait until you’re 45 to get…