May 30, 2018 10:03 AM ET Heard on All Things Considered Colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in the United States, most frequently diagnosed among adults over 65. To catch those typically slow-growing malignancies early, when they can often be cured, most doctors' groups recommend colorectal cancer screening starting at age 50. But the American Cancer Society this week changed its advice and is recommending that screening start five years earlier . "There is compelling evidence that the optimum age to start is now 45," says Dr. Richard Wender , chief cancer control officer of the society, who cites a sharp increase in deaths from colon and rectal cancers among men and women under age 50. "People born in the '80s and '90s are at higher risk of developing colon cancer, particularly rectal cancer, than people born when I was born back in the '50s," Wender says. READ MORE
HNPCC is a heredity form of Colon Cancer that can be passed through generations of family undetected.