MONDAY, Dec. 31, 2018 (HealthDay News) — For average-risk patients, a negative colonoscopy result is associated with a long-term reduction in the risk for colorectal cancer and related deaths, according to a study published online Dec. 17 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Jeffrey K. Lee, M.D., from Kaiser Permanente San Francisco, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study in an integrated health care delivery organization. The authors used data from 1,251,318 average-risk screening-eligible patients aged 50 to 75 years to examine the long-term risks for colorectal cancer and colorectal cancer deaths after a negative colonoscopy result.
The researchers found that participants with a negative colonoscopy result had a reduced risk for colorectal cancer and related deaths through the more than 12-year follow-up period compared with unscreened participants. With increasing years of follow-up, the reductions in risk were attenuated, but at the current guideline-recommended 10-year rescreening interval, the risks were significantly lower (hazard ratios, 0.54 and 0.12 for colorectal cancer and related deaths, respectively).
“Our findings can inform guideline recommendations for rescreening and future studies to evaluate the costs and benefits of earlier [versus] later rescreening intervals,” the authors write.
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