A single sigmoidoscopy between ages 55 and 64 can reduce deaths from colorectal cancer by at least 43%, British researchers reported Tuesday.raymond mill
The results from the first large randomized trial of sigmoidoscopy show that it is a more effective tool than mammography for breast cancer or PSA tests for prostate cancer, and confirm current U.S. guidelines suggesting regular sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy to screen for colorectal cancer.impact crusher
“If sigmoidoscopy can yield these results, colonoscopy should yield even better results” because it explores the entire bowel, said Dr. Eric Esrailian, a gastroenterologist at UCLA’s Reagan Medical Center.sand making machine
“We don’t often use the word ‘breakthrough,’ but this is one of those rare occasions when I am going to use that word,” Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said in a news conference. “It is extremely rare to see the results of a clinical trial which are quite as compelling as this one.”stone crusher
The test not only identifies tumors in their early stage of development, when cure rates are about 90%, but also identifies and allows removal of polyps that may later grow into tumors. “That’s a really good double benefit,” Kumar said. Currently, only about 13% of all tumors are detected at that stage. And when symptoms develop, the cure rate is less than 50%.
Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer in the U.S., diagnosed in about 147,000 people every year and killing almost 50,000. But only about half the eligible U.S. population takes advantage of screening tests for it, according to the American Cancer Society.crusher
“There has never been clinical trial evidence that removing polyps prevents cancer,” said Dr. Wendy Atkin of Imperial College London, lead author of the new study, which was reported online in the journal Lancet. “There’s been lots of indirect evidence, but this will be the first direct evidence.”jaw crusher
Beginning in 1994, Atkin and her colleagues enrolled about 170,000 men and women at 14 centers in Britain. About two-thirds were assigned to the control group and the rest to undergo sigmoidoscopy. An estimated 71% of those assigned to the intervention actually underwent the procedure, in which a flexible tube with a small camera is inserted through the rectum to examine the lower third of the bowel, where more than half of all bowel cancers occurgrinding mill
