Cancer

CDC: Poor Adherence to Cancer Screening Guidelines

According to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), US adults are not adhering to recommended screening tests for cervical, colorectal, and breast cancers.

Past studies have shown that regular cervical, colorectal, and breast cancer screening with timely follow-up and treatment decreases mortality rates from those cancers. For this reason, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has issued guidelines on the routine screening for these cancers:

  • Routine cervical cancer screening for women aged 21 to 65 years without hysterectomy every 3 years, and breast cancer screening every 2 years for women aged 50 to 74 years.
  • Routine colorectal cancer screening in adults aged 50 to 75 years through sigmoidscopy, colonoscopy, or fecal occult blood testing.

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The results of the analysis showed that 2 in 5 adults were not current with colorectal cancer screening, while 1 in 5 women were not current with cervical cancer screening, and 1 in 4 women are not up-to-date with breast cancer screening.

Overall, 80.7% of women aged 21 to 65 years reported a recent pap test for cervical cancer, while 72.6% of women aged 50 to 74 had a recent mammography for breast cancer.

These results are well below the Healthy People 2020 targets of 93% for cervical cancer and 81.1% for breast cancer.

“Efforts are needed to understand why screening percentages are not increasing, and, for Pap tests, are decreasing. In 2012, screening every 5 years with a combination of Pap and human papillomavirus (HPV) tests also was included as a screening option for some women aged 30–65 years,” explained the study’s authors.

It is unknown whether screening intervals might have been lengthened for some women after the 2012 updated recommendation, and if so, whether this might have contributed to decreased screening use as measured in the 2013 findings,” they concluded.

The complete findings are published in the May 8, 2015 issue of Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report.

-Michelle Canales Butcher

Reference:

Cohen PA, Zeijlon R, Nardin R, et al. Cancer screening test use—United States, 2013. MMWR. 2015;64(17);464-468.