News in brief - May 30, 2011

Menthol cigarettes found to have major impact on premature deaths - Disparities in colorectal cancer screening persist

Menthol cigarettes found to have major impact on premature deaths

Taking menthol cigarettes off the market could prevent up to 600,000 smoking-related premature deaths, a third of them among blacks, by 2050, says a study published online May 12 in the American Journal of Public Health.

Projections were based on a scenario in which 30% of menthol smokers quit smoking and 30% of people who would have chosen menthol cigarettes to start smoking didn't become smokers.

In light of the finding, several medical and health organizations are calling for the Food and Drug Administration to ban the product (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21566034). The organizations include the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Public Health Assn.

A March 18 report by the FDA's Tobacco Product Scientific Advisory Committee recommended the agency ban menthol cigarettes, in part, because they have a higher risk of causing tobacco-related diseases and are more addictive than other cigarettes. The FDA is reviewing the report.

Disparities in colorectal cancer screening persist

Racial and ethnic disparities in colorectal cancer screening continue despite expansion of Medicare coverage for such tests, according to a study in the May issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21546366/).

Colorectal cancer is the third most common nonskin cancer in U.S. adults. An estimated 142,570 new cases of the disease were diagnosed in 2010.

Researchers reviewed 30,893 Medicare recipients who had no previous tumors and were screened for colorectal cancer between 1996 and 2005. They found that black and Hispanic patients were less likely than whites to receive the tests, even after coverage was expanded.

In 1998, Medicare began covering annual fecal occult blood tests and colonoscopies for high-risk patients and expanded sigmoidoscopy coverage to every four years for patients older than 50. Colonoscopy coverage was expanded in July 2001 to include average-risk patients.