New Studies Fuel Debate on Increased Colonoscopy

By Christina Frangou

For years, there has been debate over how to screen first-degree relatives of patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer (CRC). All major U.S. guidelines advocate more aggressive screening for first-degree relatives of individuals diagnosed with CRC before age 60—on that point, they all agree. But when CRC is diagnosed in an older person, it is not clear how and when to screen their immediate family members. Now, two new studies that examined family history of CRC came