The Best Colorectal Cancer Treatment De-intensification Is Better Screening

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Hello, Medscape! This is Mark Lewis and I'm speaking to you in March, which is Colorectal Cancer Awareness month. I'm wearing blue, which is the thematic color for this particular month and its cause and advocacy.

I feel really passionately about this month because, frankly, a medical oncologist like myself is the last person who should see a patient with colorectal cancer. I know there are many debates about screening. What is the best screening modality? Should we change the age at first screening? Of course, the US Preventive Services Task Force weighed in on that last year and shifted the age of first screening for the average-risk American population from 50 down to 45 years.

I'm not even here to talk about that; it is very nuanced. I'm here to talk about the best screening, which is the screening that gets done. In the past 2 years — and I think we can largely blame the COVID-19 pandemic here — we've seen a dramatic drop-off in screening.

I can only speak here to the institution where I work — Intermountain Healthcare — and the role I serve, which is as a gastrointestinal (GI) oncologist.