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Americans should start getting screened for colon cancer earlier -- at age 45 instead of waiting until they’re 50, according to guidelines released Tuesday. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said it’s time for the change because colorectal cancer increasingly is appearing in younger adults. Colorectal cancer is one of the nation’s leading cancer killers, claiming about 50,000 lives a year. Overall, cases and deaths have inched down in recent years, thanks in part to screening tests that can spot tumors early -- or even prevent them by removing precancerous growths. (5/18)

Starting routine screening five years earlier could prevent more deaths from colorectal cancer, which is the third-leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force concluded. "Far too many people in the U.S. are not receiving this lifesaving preventive service," Dr. Michael Barry, the task force's vice chairperson, said in a statement. "We hope that this new recommendation to screen people ages 45 to 49, coupled with our long-standing recommendation to screen people 50 to 75, will prevent more people from dying from colorectal cancer." (Stein, 5/18)

Google on Tuesday debuted an artificial intelligence-powered dermatology tool that analyzes a user’s photos, asks a series of questions, and produces a list of possible causes. Although the tool, an app called “dermatology assist,” remains in the pilot stages in the U.S., Google has received approval from European regulators to market it as a low-risk medical device, enabling the tech giant to release it to some consumers as part of Google search later this year. (Brodwin, 5/18)

A new study examining antibiotic-resistant bacterial contamination in retail meat samples indicate that how the meat is produced matters. But how the meat is processed also matters. The study, published last week in Environmental Health Perspectives, found that retail meat samples from producers certified as organic by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) had a significantly lower prevalence of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) than meat raised conventionally. (Dall, 5/18)

Fewer high-risk outpatients with mild or moderate COVID-19 needed hospitalization or died within 28 days when given bamlanivimab soon after infection compared with their matched peers, finds an observational study yesterday in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. University of Pittsburgh researchers compared the outcomes of 232 COVID-19 outpatients given the monoclonal antibody (mAb) from Dec 9, 2020, to Mar 3, 2021, with those of 1,160 coronavirus patients of similar age and health status who didn't receive the drug. (5/18)