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Research Highlights
VA Researchers Find Colonoscopy Safe and Effective
Taken from the Veterans Health Administration Highlights dated March 15, 2002
Researchers from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have found colonoscopy to be a highly successful and safe means of screening for colorectal cancer. Their findings, published in the March issue of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy reveal that colonoscopy is not only safe but possibly the most cost-effective way to screen the average-risk population for growths as well.
The largest multi-center study of its kind to date, findings indicate that screening colonoscopy can be performed with a high degree of success and safety among large numbers of patients. The study involved 3,196 symptom-free patients of average risk, and was funded by the VA Cooperative Studies Program.
According to lead author Douglas Nelson, M.D., of the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, the study reveals a safe and effective means of detecting growths and preventing colon cancer. Several factors reinforce colonoscopy as a primary means of screening:
It is a highly accurate means of detecting and removing the slow precancerous growths (polyps) that can occur throughout the colon.
It can accurately detect most early cancers throughout the entire colon, finding at least twice as many polyps as flexible sigmoidoscopy screening.
The procedure is already used in conjunction with fecal occult blood test screening (testing stool specimen for blood that may indicate cancer). Colonoscopy determines the source of the blood and possible early cancers, removing the growths upon encountering them.
The reach of flexible sigmoidoscopy, an alternative means of screening for abnormalities, is limited to the lower part of the colon. Colonoscopy facilitates examining the entire large intestine.
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