Colonoscopy Screening Effectiveness Confirmed

Colonoscopies are associated with a significant reduction in the incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) and CRC-related mortality, according to the results of a large case-control study.

Although colonoscopy is widely used within the Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system, its effects on CRC-related mortality have not been determined.
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For their study, the researchers examined data on 4964 veterans, aged 52 years or older, diagnosed with CRC between 2002 and 2008  who had died by the end of 2010, as well as 19,856 control patients.

Exposure to colonoscopy was determine from 1997 to 6 months before CRC diagnosis.

Overall, case patients were significantly less likely to have undergone colonoscopy (odds ratio 0.39), and colonoscopy was associated with reduced mortality for left-sided cancer (odds ratio 0.28) and right-sided cancer (odds ratio 0.54).

“In this study using national VA–Medicare data, colonoscopy was associated with significant reductions in CRC mortality among veterans and was associated with greater benefit for left-sided cancer than right-sided cancer,” the researchers concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Kahi CJ, Pohl H, Myers LJ, et al. Colonoscopy and colorectal cancer mortality in the Veterans Affairs health care system: a case–control study [published online March 13, 2018]. Ann Intern Med. DOI: 10.7326/M17-0723.