Colonoscopies Better Than Aspirin-per-Day at Preventing Deaths

Colonoscopies every ten years for persons over 50 years old turn out to be a better way of preventing death from colorectal cancer than taking an aspirin a day, according to researchers at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Indiana University School of Medicine.

Researchers looked at a hypothetical group of 100,000 subjects and using a Markov process, estimated the expected number of colorectal cancers if no preventive measures were taken to be 5,904.

The researchers predicted that if the patients all took an aspirin per day, 2,952 colorectal cancers would be prevented and 5,301 life-years would be saved.

But if the patients all had colonoscopies every ten years (or every three years for those patients with polyps), 4,428 colorectal cancers would be prevented and 7,951 life-years saved.

"As compared with colonoscopy once per 10 years, the use of aspirin to prevent colorectal cancer saves fewer lives at higher costs," concluded the researchers.

Other Sources: Gastroenterology