WASHINGTON (AP) - A panel of experts is looking to a cheap, at-home test kit as a way to increase the number of people who get screened for the nation's No. 2 cancer killer.
The specialists, convened by the National Institutes of Health, pointed to California health care giant Kaiser Permanente's program to track down those due for colon cancer screening and mail them the $20 kits that test stool for problems.
It's an alternative to the uncomfortable colonoscopy some hope will mean more people get screened for the disease. Everyone is supposed to get screened for colorectal cancer starting at age 50, but U.S. data shows just 55 percent do.
But some five years after Kaiser's program began, its screening rates rose from just about 40 percent to 75 percent.
The NIH panel concluded that people should pick the screening option best for their own needs.
On the net--
CDC-funded screening program: http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/crccp/
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