Colonoscopy screening exams that are recommended for older U.S. 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.
Health experts at the World Health Organization, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and other bodies issue recommendations on screening for breast, prostate, colon and other cancers to catch disease in its earliest and most treatable stages. Debate has ensued over the last few years over whether some preventive screenings are helpful in the general population because of possible patient harm and unnecessary treatment, leading to higher health care costs.