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Colorectal cancer screening should be limited to people whose life expectancies exceed the time to benefit. Researchers determined the time to benefit for screening flexible sigmoidoscopy by conducting this meta-analysis of four randomized, controlled trials (460,000 participants; age range, 50–74), in which screening flexible sigmoidoscopy was compared with no screening. Mean follow-up was about 12 years.
The sigmoidoscopy-screening group experienced 22% to 31% lower risk for colorectal cancer–related death than the no-screening group. After 10 years, 1.2 colorectal cancer–related deaths were prevented for every 1000 people screened — i.e., it took 9.4 years to prevent 1 colorectal cancer–related death among every 1000 people who underwent …