Each March, we celebrate National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month to raise awareness of this common, deadly, and preventable form of cancer and advocate for increased screening uptake and investment in related research. Enhancing awareness is particularly important for those estimated 20 million average-risk individuals between the ages of 45 and 49 who became newly eligible for screening under the revised 2021 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force CRC screening guidelines, given alarming increases in early-onset CRC incidence. But as we know, awareness of CRC and screening eligibility alone is not enough to improve outcomes without addressing the many other patient, provider, and system-level barriers to screening uptake. Indeed, even before health care delivery disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, CRC screening was underutilized, and inequities in screening uptake and downstream outcomes existed.
Dr. Megan A. Adams
While there is not space here for a full discussion of these important topics, I refer you to our Gastroenterology Data Trends 2022 supplement (https://cdn.mdedge.com/files/s3fs-public/aga_data_trends_2022_web.pdf), which includes two excellent articles by Dr. Rachel Issaka of the University of Washington (“The Impact of COVID-19 on Colorectal Cancer Screening Programs”) and Dr. Aasma Shaukat of NYU (“Early Onset Colorectal Cancer: Trends in Incidence and Screening”).
In our March issue, we highlight the AGA’s decade-long advocacy efforts to close the “colonoscopy loophole” and reduce financial barriers to colorectal cancer screening. From AGA’s flagship journals, we report on the first Delphi-based consensus recommendations on early-onset colorectal cancer and highlight a study out of Italy comparing two computer-aided optical diagnosis systems for detection of small, leave-in-situ colon polyps. In our March Member Spotlight, we introduce you to gastroenterologist Christina Tennyson, MD, who shares the rewards and challenges of practicing gastroenterology in a rural area and explains how she incorporates “lifestyle medicine” into her clinical practice. Finally, GIHN Associate Editor Dr. Avi Ketwaroo introduces our quarterly Perspectives column on endoscopic innovation in management of GI perforation and acute cholecystitis.
We hope you enjoy these stories and all the exciting content featured in our March issue!
Megan A. Adams, MD, JD, MSc
Editor-in-Chief
