Screening Recommendations for Colon Cancer

Amber Draper, PharmD, BCOP, clinical pharmacist, Winship Cancer Institute in Georgia discusses current recommendations for colon cancer screening. This video was filmed at the 2019 Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association Annual Conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

Amber Draper, PharmD, BCOP: Now we actually recommend, according to American Cancer Society (ACS), that screening should start at age of 45 [years]. So historically, it was always 50 years if you’re a normal-risk patient and at normal risk you would have no family history and no personal history and no other identifying risk factors. But more recently, last summer—I believe it was in June—the ACS came out and said that we need to start screening patients earlier because again we’re noticing a trend that while in ages over 50 there’s a decline in colorectal cancer, in the age group between 30 and 49, the risk is actually increasing. And so they dropped the lower limit to 45 years of age to start screening. The NCCN [National Comprehensive Cancer Network] guidelines have not updated to agree with that comment yet, but I think that’s just a matter of time before they actually come out and also substantiate the screening recommendation for 45 years.