A recent study reported a smaller-than-expected benefit from screening colonoscopies. But the study has important caveats, gastroenterologists say, making it ripe for misinterpretation if that context isn’t included.
The study was the first randomized controlled trial — widely considered the gold standard for testing medical interventions — of the procedure. Published online October 9 in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study followed participants invited to have a colonoscopy and compared how they fared with participants who weren’t invited to undergo the procedure. The risk of colorectal cancer at 10 years was reduced by 18 percent in the invited group. But there wasn’t a meaningful difference in the risk of death from colorectal cancer between the two groups, the study reported.
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