LONDON — A five-minute colon cancer test could reduce the number of deaths from the disease by about 40 per cent, a new study says.
British researchers followed more than 170,000 people for about 11 years. Of those, more than 40,000 had a “flexi-scope” test, an exam that removes polyps, small growths that could become cancerous.
The test involves having a pen-sized tube inserted into the colon so doctors can identify and remove small polyps. Researchers used the test on people in their 50s. In the U.K., government-funded colon cancer screening doesn’t start until age 60.
Researchers compared those results to more than 113,000 people who were not screened. They found the flexi-scope test reduced peoples’ chances of getting colon cancer by one third. It also cut their chances of dying by 43 per cent. Researchers said the test needed to be done just once in a person’s lifetime.
The results were published online Wednesday in the medical journal, Lancet. It was paid for by Britain’s Medical Research Council, National Health Service Research & Development, Cancer Research UK and KeyMed.
Experts said the findings could make some authorities reconsider how they look for colon cancer. Worldwide, the disease causes one million cases and 600,000 deaths every year.
In Britain, people aged 60 to 74 are tested every other year with a fecal blood test. In the U.S., colonoscopies — 20-minute scans of the entire colon that require sedation — are common, even though no trials have proved they work for cancer screening.