Research Update on Colon Health

If I were to take a poll, I’d wager that most people would skip a colonoscopy if there were an alternative that provided the same information on the health of your colon. The key words are “same information”—not only that, but provided the same diagnostic outcomes. Will the alternative test tell you whether you have colorectal cancer? Will it give information on the health of your colon? A recent research paper called that into question. Let’s take a look at the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers from several European countries (Poland, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands) wanted to examine the difference in outcomes between two groups. The first were a group who were invited to have a colonoscopy. The second was a group that received usual care. Simply put, the second group relied on physicals and doctor discussions to decide whether to have a colonoscopy or not. They recruited over 28,000 people from 55 to 64 years old for the invited colonoscopy and compared them with over 56,000 people who received the usual care.

After following the subjects for 10 years, they found the risk of colorectal cancer diagnosis was 0.98% in the invited group versus 1.2% in the typical treatment group. That looked pretty good for colonoscopies. But it’s what the researchers suggested in the discussion portion of the article that raised questions. I’ll cover that on Saturday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: New England Journal of Medicine. 2022. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2208375