Study: Men Neglect Colon Cancer Tests

Michigan researchers say that though colon cancer is the third leading cause of cancer deaths in men, most men don’t get timely colon cancer tests.

A University of Michigan team, in a study published in February’s edition of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 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. Experts recommend people age 50 and older get a fecal occult blood test annually, sigmoidoscopy every five years or colonoscopy every 10 years.