There are new recommendations for colon cancer screening.
The American Cancer Society now suggests starting at 45 instead of 50.
The University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health Professor, Tim Church, co-authored Wednesday’s new guideline.
The American Cancer Society hopes it will help to catch colon or rectal cancer early.
Church is a member of American Cancer Society Guideline Development Group which is responsible for updating cancer screening guidelines.
"More information came out on cancer in younger people and the rates are going up so we decided it's time to revise the guidelines," said Church.
Church's expertise and research in colorectal screening goes back, four decades, to his first project in grad school at the U of M, to look for blood in the stool.
"This was the first trial ever done of colorectal cancer screening in the world. We were able to show not only could it reduce death from colorectal cancer by a 3rd, you could also reduce the number of people who actually got colorectal cancer by 20%," said Church.
And past studies by Church and other researchers across the country, were used to come up with today's new guideline.
The results from those studies were used in a "micro-simulation model", which is a model that simulates colorectal cancer incidence and mortality to figure out how beneficial it would be to begin screenings earlier to help save more lives.
"Be aware screening is important, screening can save their lives, screening can actually prevent colorectal cancer," said Church.
In just the last few years, Church also co-authored two other guidelines one for breast cancer screenings and one for lung cancer screenings.