In a large trial of more than 150,000 older U.S. adults, those who were randomly assigned to get screened using so-called flexible sigmoidoscopy on two different occasions were 21 percent less likely to get colon cancer than those not offered the screening.
They were also 26 percent less likely to die of cancer, probably because screening picked up pre-cancerous lesions and early-stage cancers before they could cause serious harm, researchers reported Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Colonoscopy "is a very unpleasant thing," said Dr. Alfred Neugut, an epidemiologist and oncologist from Columbia University in New York, who wasn't part of the study team.
"Sigmoidoscopy is a much less elaborate procedure, so you can basically walk into the doctor's office and get it on the spot
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