WEDNESDAY, Oct. 19 (HealthDay News) -- The potential benefits of colorectal cancer screening for elderly patients vary widely by age, life expectancy and the type of test, according to a study in the October issue of Gastroenterology.
Cynthia Ko, M.D., of the University of Washington, Seattle, and colleagues examined the risks and benefits of annual fecal occult blood tests, flexible sigmoidoscopy every five years, and colonoscopy every 10 years in adults aged 70 to 94. For each modality, they calculated the number of patients needed to screen in order to prevent one cancer-related death.
The researchers found that the potential benefits varied widely. For example, one cancer-related death would be prevented by colonoscopy screening of 42 healthy men aged 70 to 74 compared to one in every 431 women aged 75 to 79 who are in poor health. Although colonoscopy screening had the greatest benefit, its risks outweighed the benefits in certain subgroups aged 70 and older.
In an accompanying editorial, Carmen Lewis, M.D., of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, stated, "These guidelines support individualized decision making for colon cancer screening in the elderly and put the onus on physicians to determine who is likely to benefit from screening and who is not."
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