Colonoscopy Reduced Risk of Late-Stage Colorectal Cancer by 70%
Adults of average risk for colorectal cancer can reduce the likelihood of being diagnosed with late-stage disease by 70% by undergoing screening colonoscopy, according to the results of a case-control study published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
This decrease in risk was also seen for right colon cancer (OR=0.36; 95% CI, 0.16-0.80), where evidence of the effectiveness of colonoscopy has been limited.
A second studied published in Annals found that patients who received electronic health record-linked automated reminders to undergo colorectal cancer screening were twice as likely to be up to date on screening than patients who were given usual care (56.8% vs. 26.3%; P<.001). In this study, automated reminders included letters, pamphlets, and fecal occult blood tests mailed to participants.
Additional support, such as a follow-up phone call or nurse navigation, increased the number of patients up-to-date on screening compared with automated methods alone.
An abstract of the colorectal screening study can be found here and an abstract for the electronic health record study can be found here.