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In 2021 the US Preventive Services Task Force lowered the recommended age to start colorectal cancer screening from 50 to 45 for average-risk adults, in response to rising rates in younger people.
Recommendation statement based on systematic review and modelling concluding with moderate certainty that screening adults aged 45 to 49 has moderate net benefit (B recommendation), continuing the A recommendation for ages 50 to 75, with a range of acceptable tests including colonoscopy, faecal immunochemical testing, stool DNA testing and CT colonography.
Screening from 45 is now standard in the United States and has been adopted or debated elsewhere; it is the main policy response to early-onset colorectal cancer.