Screening Procedure Fails to Prevent Colon Cancer Deaths in Large Study
- Colonscopy offers small reduction in colon cancer risk: NEJM
- Previous studies had shown significant risk reductions
A colon cancer tumor seen on a radial CT scan.
Source: BSIP/Universal Images Group/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Colonoscopy screening exams that are recommended for older US adults failed to reduce the risk of death from colon cancer in a 10-year study that questions the benefits of the common procedure.
While people who underwent the exam were 18% less likely to develop colon cancer, the overall death rate among screened and unscreened people were the same at about 0.3%, researchers from Poland, Norway and Sweden said Sunday in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.