Men carry a higher risk of colon cancer than women and should get their first colonoscopy to screen for the disease at age 45, five years earlier than the current recommendation, according to a study. Researchers found that men were 1.8 times more likely than women to have advanced adenomas, which are polyps or lesions most susceptible to turning malignant, and twice as likely to have colon cancer. The findings also showed that men got precancerous polyps and colon cancers 10 years earlier than women, according to the study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
