Two studies of colonoscopy screening reported in the May 24 and 31 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) fortified evidence of the test's value, and "address two very important and unresolved questions," according to an accompanying editorial.

Is 10 years the right amount of time to wait for a second colonoscopy after a negative initial colonoscopy exam? Absolutely, according to researchers at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, who conducted a retrospective population-based analysis using a cohort of 35,975 patients screened over a period of 15 years from 1989 to 2003.

The second question is whether people 80 years of age and older will increase their life expectancy by colonoscopy screening.  Read more  



Guest Update by Dr. Mark B. Clanton

Continuing the Legacy of a Great Leader

Last week, the world lost one of its most important public health leaders, Dr. Lee Jong-Wook, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). It's not often that the passing of a single individual is mourned by people worldwide, but in the case of Dr. Lee, it's absolutely true.

And that's because his work touched so many. Dr. Lee dedicated his life to improving the health of children and adults on every continent - orchestrating programs that have had a substantial impact on reducing the rates of diseases such as tuberculosis and polio, and have led to the proliferation of new and better vaccines to protect children from preventable but often deadly diseases.  Read more  

The NCI Cancer Bulletin is produced by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). NCI, which was established in 1937, leads the national effort to eliminate the suffering and death due to cancer. Through basic, clinical, and population-based biomedical research and training, NCI conducts and supports research that will lead to a future in which we can identify the environmental and genetic causes of cancer, prevent cancer before it starts, identify cancers that do develop at the earliest stage, eliminate cancers through innovative treatment interventions, and biologically control those cancers that we cannot eliminate so they become manageable, chronic diseases. For more information on cancer, call 1-800-4-CANCER or visit http://www.cancer.gov. NCI Cancer Bulletin staff can be reached at ncicancerbulletin@mail.nih.gov.