By Suzanne Rostler

NEW YORK, Mar 15 (Reuters Health) - Screening some people for colorectal cancer earlier than current guidelines recommend would save lives and money, researchers report.

The American Cancer Society recommends that people who do not have other risk factors such as a family history of the disease or inflammatory bowel disease begin screening at age 50 and continue the process for the next 35 years, since colon cancer tends to strike older adults.

But screening blacks beginning at age 42, screening whites at age 44 and Asians at age 46 would be more cost effective and save more lives, the study authors suggest.

"Colorectal (cancer) incidence has a major effect on cost-effectiveness estimates. As a result, 35-year screening programs beginning in high-risk groups prior to age 50 are cost effective," study lead author Dr. Charles P. Theuer, told Reuters Health in an interview.

The study, published in the March issue of Gastroenterology, found that the rate of colorectal cancer at age 50 was nearly 57 per 100,000 blacks, about 35 per 100,000 Asians, about 33 per 100,000 whites, and nearly 27 per 100,000 Latinos.

Between the ages of 50 and 85, blacks had the highest rate of colorectal cancer followed by whites, Asians and Latinos. The results of the study are based on an analysis of data from California.

"Our study shows large variations in the way cancer develops among ethnic groups, suggesting that we need to change the timing and techniques of screening and tailor them to each group," Theuer, from the University of California at Irvine, said in a prepared statement.

For instance, screening with a blood stool test every year, a sigmoidoscopy to examine the lower third of the colon every 5 years, and a colonoscopy to examine the entire colon every 10 years, was found to be the most cost effective for blacks and the least cost effective for Latinos.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the US, according to the American Cancer Society. About 131,000 Americans will be diagnosed with the disease this year, of which about 55,000 will die.

Screening for colon cancer improves the chances that the disease is found in the early stages when treatments are most likely to succeed. But rates of screening remain low across the ethnic spectrum, according to Dr. David Lieberman from Oregon Health Sciences University and the Portland Veteran's Administration Medical Center in Portland, Oregon.

Among minorities, lack of access to healthcare and insurance may be to blame. But ultimately, society will bear the costs, he notes.

"We need to persuade payers that screening has cost saving as well as life-saving potential," he writes in an accompanying editorial. "We need to persuade governments that access to healthcare is the key to providing cost-effective preventive services and that it is foolish and costly to withhold healthcare services from a large portion of our population."

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