Good News! Cancer Risk Assessment Is Here...

...but only if you're white of course. It looks like the National Cancer Institute released a snazzy, fancy online protocol that helps people identify their approximate risk for colon cancer. The catch?

The catch is that it only works for whites.

That’s too bad, since blacks are at higher risk than whites for colorectal cancer, developing it and dying of it at higher rates, and recent reports suggest the racial gap is widening.

The new screening tool, developed by the National Cancer Institute and available at www.cancer.gov/colorectalcancerrisk, asks roughly 20 questions, the first two about race and ethnic background.

If the user answers “Hispanic” or “Black or African-American,” a box of red text pops up that says, “At this time the risk calculations and results provided by this tool are only accurate for non-Hispanic white men and women ages 50 to 85.” The text refers readers to another Web site for more information.