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Colorectal Cancer Screening Guidelines Updated

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has updated its 2002 recommendations on colorectal cancer screening and says tests should stop after age 75.

The new guidelines, which appear online in the Annals of Internal Medicine, recommend —

• Screening using high-sensitivity, newer fecal occult blood testing, sigmoidoscopy with interval fecal occult blood testing, or colonoscopy

• No routine screening in people ages 76 to 85 who have had consistently negative screenings since age 50

• Not screening people over age 85

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