Colonoscopy lessens mortality for all colorectal cancer, but more so for left-sided disease
MONDAY, March 12, 2018 (HealthDay News) — Screening colonoscopy significantly reduces mortality from colorectal cancer (CRC), according to a Veterans Affairs study published online March 13 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Charles J. Kahi, M.D., from the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis, and colleagues used VA-Medicare administrative data to identify 4,964 case patients (veterans aged ≥52 years diagnosed with CRC between 2002 and 2008 and died of the disease by the end of 2010) and 19,856 control patients. Colonoscopy history was determined from 1997 to six months before CRC diagnosis for case patients.
The researchers found that case patients were significantly less likely to have undergone any colonoscopy (odds ratio, 0.39). Reduced mortality was associated with colonoscopy for both left-sided cancer (odds ratio, 0.28) and right-sided cancer (odds ratio, 0.54). The interval between CRC diagnosis and colonoscopy exposure did not affect the primary findings in sensitivity analyses.
“Our study showed that colonoscopy was associated with a reduction in CRC mortality of approximately 60 percent in the Veterans Health Administration system, although the reduction was less pronounced in the right colon,” the authors write.
One author disclosed receiving personal fees from Medtronic outside the submitted work.
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