Thursday, December 18, 2008

Study: Colonoscopies Not As Reliable as Believed

Study: Colonoscopies Not As Reliable as Believed
12/16/2008
A new study in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine claims that colonoscopies are not nearly as reliable in the detection of colon cancer signs as experts previously thought they were.

The researchers said that colonoscopies almost always overlooked cancerous precursors (such as cancerous polyps) on the right side of the colon, where it is harder to see.

Instead of preventing 90 percent of cancers, as was commonly thought, colonoscopies might only prevent more like 60 percent to 70 percent, according to a New York Times article that ran today and is called, “Colonoscopies Miss Many Cancers, Study Finds.”

“This is a really dramatic result,” Dr. David Ransohoff, a gasteroenterologist at the University of North Carolina, told the newspaper. “It makes you step back and worry, ‘What do we really know?’”

To read The New York Times article, click here.

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