The Doctor Who Does Your Colonoscopy Matters
Those with higher polyp detection rates prevent more cancers, save more lives, study says
TUESDAY, June 16, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- The doctor performing your colonoscopy makes a difference in whether you'll develop colon cancer or die from it, a new study finds.
Colonoscopy saves lives, and "high quality" colonoscopies save even more, the study authors said. High quality means screening by doctors adept at identifying many precancerous growths (polyps), they said.
"The results further suggest that efforts to improve the detection and removal of precancerous polyps will likely not only help patients, but will support current efforts to improve the quality of the test and be cost-effective," said study lead author Reinier Meester, of Erasmus MC University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
In the study, higher-quality colonoscopies were associated with a 50 to 60 percent lower risk for colon cancer and colon cancer fatalities over a patient's lifetime.
Higher-quality screenings did not translate into more expensive screenings, the research team noted in the June 16 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The purpose of screening colonoscopy is to detect and remove early cancerous or precancerous lesions. During the outpatient procedure, a doctor uses a scope to examine the inside of the large intestine.
The American Cancer Society recommends that most people undergo colon cancer screening beginning at the age of 50. This means either a colonoscopy every 10 years or one of several other options every five years: flexible sigmoidoscopy, virtual colonoscopy, or double-contrast barium enema.
To assess how the detection rate of a colonoscopy may affect a patient's future cancer risk, the study team looked at data concerning nearly 57,600 patients who were part of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California health care system.
Those patients who underwent colon cancer screening had their colonoscopies performed by 136 different doctors between 1998 and 2010.
The analysis concluded that undergoing a colonoscopy, regardless of quality, does save lives. For example, the lifetime colon cancer risk among those who didn't get screened was more than 34 per 1,000. This compared with less than 27 per 1,000 among those screened by doctors who were the least adept at spotting polyps and under 13 per 1,000 for those screened by the most skillful polyp spotters.
The Doctor Who Does Your Colonoscopy Matters
Those with higher polyp detection rates prevent more cancers, save more lives, study says
TUESDAY, June 16, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- The doctor performing your colonoscopy makes a difference in whether you'll develop colon cancer or die from it, a new study finds.
Colonoscopy saves lives, and "high quality" colonoscopies save even more, the study authors said. High quality means screening by doctors adept at identifying many precancerous growths (polyps), they said.
"The results further suggest that efforts to improve the detection and removal of precancerous polyps will likely not only help patients, but will support current efforts to improve the quality of the test and be cost-effective," said study lead author Reinier Meester, of Erasmus MC University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
In the study, higher-quality colonoscopies were associated with a 50 to 60 percent lower risk for colon cancer and colon cancer fatalities over a patient's lifetime.
Higher-quality screenings did not translate into more expensive screenings, the research team noted in the June 16 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The purpose of screening colonoscopy is to detect and remove early cancerous or precancerous lesions. During the outpatient procedure, a doctor uses a scope to examine the inside of the large intestine.
The American Cancer Society recommends that most people undergo colon cancer screening beginning at the age of 50. This means either a colonoscopy every 10 years or one of several other options every five years: flexible sigmoidoscopy, virtual colonoscopy, or double-contrast barium enema.
To assess how the detection rate of a colonoscopy may affect a patient's future cancer risk, the study team looked at data concerning nearly 57,600 patients who were part of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California health care system.
Those patients who underwent colon cancer screening had their colonoscopies performed by 136 different doctors between 1998 and 2010.
The analysis concluded that undergoing a colonoscopy, regardless of quality, does save lives. For example, the lifetime colon cancer risk among those who didn't get screened was more than 34 per 1,000. This compared with less than 27 per 1,000 among those screened by doctors who were the least adept at spotting polyps and under 13 per 1,000 for those screened by the most skillful polyp spotters.
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