Despite the availability of screening tests, are almost half the cases of cervical cancer and colorectal cancer diagnosed in the United States in the late stages, when the disease is more difficult to treat.
That’s the conclusion of a report out today from the CDC, which also found that one third of the cases of breast cancer have been caught at a late stage. “More work is needed to widely evidence-based cancer screening tests for early detection and, ultimately, an increase in the number of lives saved lead can, “said Marcus Plescia, Director of the CDC’s Division of cancer prevention and control, in a statement.
The United States preventive Services Task Force recommendations for screening for breast cancer, colorectal cancer and cervical cancer (among other illnesses.)For example, the American Cancer Society. In the case of cervical cancer and colorectal cancer, actually screening tests can help prevent disease, as they identify tumors lesions or abnormal cells that can be removed before they progress in a threat to health.
Of course, screening tests are not perfect.Mammograms, for example, do not capture all tumors — some are not visible on the x-ray, and others grow fast enough to be dangerous when a woman has even regular mammograms. And tests shall bear their own risks — complications during a procedure, referral for further procedures that can harm and finding and treating the disease that poses a threat to the health wouldn’t have stood there left only.
But many people don’t order tests supported by scientific evidence and recommended by the USPSTF and the ACP.The report says that 62% of adults met recommended screening guidelines for colorectal cancer, while 81% of women aged 50-74 years reported they had a mammogram within the past two years and 88% of the women for whom cervical cancer screening was recommended said they received a pap test in the previous three years.
The incidence of late-stage disease varied by age, ethnicity and geography, for example, the CDC says., black men and women tend to have both higher rates of late-stage cancer — as measured by the number of cases per 100,000 people — and also higher percentages of late-stage cancer, which means that a larger proportion of the total cancer caught at a late stage. Incidence of late-stage colorectal cancer also increased with age, and late-stage breast cancer was highest among women aged 70-79. Late-stage cervical cancer incidence rates were highest among women aged 50-79 and Hispanics.
Read the full report for a list of the study constraints, including the self-reporting of the screening tests and lack of high-quality incidence data for the two States.
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