Colorectal cancer screening still too low

ATLANTA, July 14 (UPI) -- Only about half of U.S. men and women 50 and older receive the recommended colorectal cancer screening tests, government researchers said.

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a National Health Interview Survey and found 50 percent of men and women 50 and older had received screening in 2005. Although this was an improvement over the 43 percent of screened individuals reported in 2000, it is still far from optimal, investigators say.

Jean A. Shapiro, a CDC epidemiologist, says a major problem appears to be insurance coverage. Among people without health insurance, researchers found the rate of colorectal cancer screening was 24.1 percent compared to more than 50 percent of insured Americans, depending on the type of insurance.

"Colorectal cancer is one of the leading cancer killers in the United States, behind only lung cancer," Shapiro said in a statement. "Screening has been shown to significantly reduce mortality from colorectal cancer, but a lot of people are still not getting screened."

The findings are published in the Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.