The guidelines were recently set for psa tests for men at the same age as well, 50 to 75 is now the 25 time frame. BD
The utility of cancer screening over the course of a lifetime follows a sort of bell curve. Now federal guidelines suggest that most people can stop getting colonoscopies after age 75.
In general, the risk of cancer among young adults is so low that screening healthy young people (who don’t have unusual risk factors) doesn’t make sense.
As the risk of cancer rises during middle age, so do the benefits of cancer screening — that’s why we’re supposed to start getting colonoscopies (or flexible sigmoidoscopies, or fecal occult blood tests) at age 50.
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/10/07/colonoscopies-not-recommended-after-age-7
The guidelines were recently set for psa tests for men at the same age as well, 50 to 75 is now the 25 time frame. BD
The utility of cancer screening over the course of a lifetime follows a sort of bell curve. Now federal guidelines suggest that most people can stop getting colonoscopies after age 75.
In general, the risk of cancer among young adults is so low that screening healthy young people (who don’t have unusual risk factors) doesn’t make sense.
As the risk of cancer rises during middle age, so do the benefits of cancer screening — that’s why we’re supposed to start getting colonoscopies (or flexible sigmoidoscopies, or fecal occult blood tests) at age 50.
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/10/07/colonoscopies-not-recommended-after-age-7