Flexible Sigmoidoscopy Screening Reduces All-Cause Mortality

Some purists have argued against colorectal cancer screening because screening studies have not demonstrated a reduction in all-cause mortality, though cancer-specific mortality is reduced. As part of a recently issued update of its colorectal cancer screening guideline, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) performed a meta-analysis in which they again found that colorectal cancer screening does not reduce all-cause mortality.

In the current report, investigators show that, because of a methodologic error, the USPSTF missed a reduction in all-cause mortality for screening flexible sigmoidoscopy. This error pertained to results from a Norwegian flexible sigmoidoscopy trial, and after correcting for the error, the relative risk for…