OPINION:
While Washington debates when the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force will next meet, an equally important conversation is largely being overlooked.
Our nation’s cancer screening guidelines have failed to keep pace with medical advances that could help more Americans access preventive care, and the task force plays a critical role in that.
The task force shapes preventive healthcare nationwide, yet cancer screening recommendations have not been updated in years. Colorectal cancer guidelines, for example, have not been updated since 2021. During that time, new research and screening technologies have emerged, offering additional opportunities to detect cancer earlier and reach people who have historically gone unscreened.
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As a physician who has served in both clinical medicine and public health leadership, I have seen how decisions made at the federal level can influence the care available in communities across the country. When national recommendations lag behind scientific progress, the consequences extend far beyond Washington.
The Trump administration has identified cancer and chronic disease as major public health challenges. Still, addressing them requires looking beyond how we treat illness and investing greater attention in how we prevent it. Ensuring that Americans have access to timely, evidence-based cancer screening is an important place to start.
Colorectal cancer demonstrates why this matters.
The disease is now the leading cause of cancer-related death among Americans younger than 50. Yet when detected at an early, localized stage, the five-year survival rate is 91%. Despite the importance of early detection, 1 in 3 Americans ages 45 to 75 is not up to date on recommended colorectal cancer screening.
This disconnect should concern anyone working to improve the nation’s health. The challenge is no longer whether effective screening tools exist, but whether our healthcare system is doing enough to help people use them.
In public health, we recognize that improving outcomes requires meeting people where they are. For some, barriers to screening include transportation, time away from work or concerns about traditional procedures. For others, uncertainty about available options or out-of-pocket costs prevent many from taking that first step.
Medical innovation is helping address some of these challenges. Blood-based colorectal cancer screening tests approved by the Food and Drug Administration are now in use, offering another option for eligible adults who might otherwise delay screening.
In fact, research has reported screening adherence above 90% when blood-based options are offered, underscoring the potential of expanded patient choice.
As these technologies become more widely available, federal guidelines should account for the growing body of evidence on their use and effectiveness.
The implications extend to affordability and access. Private insurers are generally required to cover task force-recommended preventive services without patient cost-sharing, though ongoing litigation has created uncertainty about whether that mandate applies to all plan types. When guidelines fall behind scientific advances, additional barriers are created for patients.
The last time the task force responded to colorectal cancer rates, incidence and mortality were rising for younger populations, prompting the task force to lower the age from 50 to 45. That decision demonstrated the importance of adapting national recommendations as our understanding of the disease evolves.
The same commitment to reviewing emerging evidence is needed today.
With millions of Americans still missing recommended screenings, the next meeting of the task force presents an opportunity to refocus attention on a preventable public health challenge and make cancer a priority. Reviewing colorectal cancer screening guidelines should be part of that work, with an emphasis on ensuring recommendations reflect both scientific progress and the realities of patient access.
Our nation’s progress against cancer will depend not only on the treatments we develop but also on how effectively we put the tools for early detection into the hands of the people who need them.
• Dr. Justin M. Turner is an internal medicine physician and assistant professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
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