Effect of Colonoscopy Screening on Risks of Colorectal Cancer and Related Death, New England Journal of Medicine, 9 October 2022

Over 10 years of follow-up, colonoscopy did not reduce the risk of dying from colon cancer, or from any cause. From the abstract:

Although colonoscopy is widely used as a screening test to detect colorectal cancer, its effect on the risks of colorectal cancer and related death is unclear.

We performed a pragmatic, randomized trial involving presumptively healthy men and women 55 to 64 years of age drawn from population registries in Poland, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands between 2009 and 2014.

Follow-up data were available for 84,585 participants.

Related:
Screening Colonoscopy Misses the Mark in its First Real Test, Sensible Medicine, 9 October 2022

Over 10 years of follow-up, an invitation to screening colonoscopy modestly reduced the risk of being diagnosed with colorectal cancer, but it did not significantly reduce the risk of dying from colorectal cancer. Survival from cancer was nearly identical in both groups. And all-cause mortality was the same.

What do you think? Overscreening, overdiagnosis, overtreatment? I think that.