Screening rates for colorectal cancer aren’t as high as for other types of the disease, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Finding cancers very early is the goal of screening, but for colorectal cancer, or CRC, rates of screening are disappointingly low in some places. That’s according to Kathy Bull Henry, a colorectal cancer expert at Johns Hopkins. 

Bull Henry: In federally qualified health centers, that use screening, CRC screening is very low, only 40%. This is much lower than screening for other types of cancers, for instance breast cancer. For every 100 CRCs in white Americans there are 132 CRCs in blacks. CRC presents three to seven years earlier in blacks than whites, and CRC presents about twice as often we believe under the age of fifty in blacks as compared to whites.  :32

Bull Henry notes that efforts to target black men and women for colorectal cancer screening need to meet people where they are,and must be accessible and convenient. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.