Researchers followed more than 2.4 million people between the ages of 50 and 90 years for 14 years who did not have colon cancer at the outset of the study. In 2006, one in 100 patients had died from colon cancer, but colonoscopy rates had nearly quadrupled, according to the report. The risk of dying from colon cancer also reduced steadily, after accounting for factors including income and age.
Researchers theorized that because physicians during colonoscopy remove abnormal cells before they are cancerous or before the cancer become aggressive, the risk of death from colon cancer decreased. A randomized, controlled trial is needed to determine the true connection between colonoscopy and risk of colon cancer death, but this is expensive, time-consuming and may be unethical, according to the report.
The study is published in the March issue of The American Journal of Gastroenterology.
Read the Reuters’ report on colonoscopy and risk of colon cancer death.
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