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by JamesBarney
1351 days ago
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The study results are "colonoscopies do not lead to a reduction in colon cancer mortality". Reporting that isn't misleading that's what the study says. Basically in the treated group of 1103 of every 10,000 people died. And in the control group 1104 of every 10,000 people died. So to summarize the study. Inviting someone to a colonoscopy reduces their risk of getting colon cancer by 22 basis points.
Their risk of dying from colon cancer by 3 basis points, and their risk of dying of any cause by 1 basis point. With the actual risk reduction being up to 5x this assuming it's a 20% difference in the rate of getting colonoscopies which is driving the difference. But this makes metformin look good because it drives a much larger overall reduction in risk. |
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The measured intervention was not the colonoscopy, it was the invitation to screen. Only 42% of invited patients actually got a colonoscopy. This is far more persuasive to me:
> "When the investigators compared just the 42% of participants in the invited group who actually showed up for a colonoscopy to the control group, they saw about a 30% reduction in colon cancer risk and a 50% reduction in colon cancer death. “That adds to a bunch of observational study data that suggests exposing people to colonoscopy can reduce risk of developing and dying of colon cancer,” Gupta said."
As a member of the public, I don't really care about invitation to screen, but do care about the efficacy of colonoscopy. I can see invitation to screen being an important concern from a public health standpoint.