ANNARBOR, Mich., March 3 (UPI) -- Though colon cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in men, fewer than half of those surveyed were current on screening for the disease.
The new University of Michigan Health System study says men do pay attention to prostate cancer, however. And that has researchers thinking an annual prostate cancer screening might be a good opportunity to urge men to be screened for colon cancer. too.
Researchers looked at 22,617 men age 50 and older who had responded to the 2002 Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance Survey, an annual phone survey of adults that measures preventive health behaviors.
The study found that while nearly two-thirds of men were up-to-date with prostate cancer screening, only 47.6 percent had had a recent colon cancer screening.
More than 70,000 men will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer this year, according to the American Cancer Society; some 28,000 will die from the disease.
