ON MAY 30, the American Cancer Society announced a change in its guidelines for colon cancer screening (https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.21457). The ACS now recommends starting screening at age 45, instead of 50. It made this change because the incidence of colon cancer in people under 50 has risen dramatically over the past 20 years. Fortunately, as younger Americans begin to be screened under the new guidelines, a new, high-tech screening test–known as virtual colonoscopy–is poised to make screening for colon cancer safer and less expensive. Regrettably, the federal agency that oversees Medicare is slowing virtual colonoscopy’s widespread adoption, harming Medicare patients and other screening-age Americans.
