Until last week, colon cancer screening for most folks started at age 50. Why 50? Why hadn’t the colonoscopy coming of age been set younger to prevent the tragedy of a 45-year-old, or an even younger person, developing colon cancer? In the past 2 weeks, I had to give a young patient and his wife the sad and serious news that he had colon cancer. Because of his young age, he never received a screening colon exam, as we routinely do with 50-year-old individuals. Is it time to make an adjustment? Our colon cancer screening system is not perfect. It is not designed to prevent every case. There have been people in their 20’s who have been diagnosed with this disease, and there is simply no way to capture them in the system. Experts in disease prevention must carefully analyze disease trends and behavior to find the sweet spot of when to begin screening. And, money is part of this decision. Let’s face it. We don’t have unlimited resources to pay for every worthy me
MD Whistleblower presents vignettes and commentaries on the medical profession. We peek 'behind the medical curtain' and deliver candor and controversy in every post.