Latinos Less Likely To Be Tested for Colon Cancer

According to Reuters, Latinos trail behind their white counterparts in being screened for colon cancer.  Even worse, the gap widens with people who have a family history of the disease.  The article reports:

Compared with average-risk whites, Latinos with no family history of colon cancer were 26 percent less likely to say they had been screened. And those with a family history were 72 percent less likely than whites with a family history to get recommended screening.

Why aren’t Latinos getting tested? Researchers surmised that it could be due to communication problems with doctors or fears and anxiety about being screened, and called for improved dialogue between the community and medical professionals about the disease.

The study, conducted by researchers at UCLA, polled 30,000 adults in California, and asked about participants’ frequency in testing for breast and colon cancer, and if there was a history of the disease in their family.  U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines as a reference for screening recommendations meaning:

[M]ammograms every two years for women starting at age 40, and colon cancer screening every one, five or ten years, depending on the method, for men and women 50 and older.

Lead researcher Ninez Ponce noted that more studies would have to be conducted to find causes of lower screening rates for Latinos before changes could be made to address the gap.

The study was originally published in the journal Cancer.