[vharuck]

>The problem with your doctor's recommendation is that doctors recommend colonoscopy based on age, not whether you have any factors that might indicate colon cancer.

This study is meant to inform the public health policy of asymptomatic screening. They tried to see if there was a benefit in offering screenings to random patients, regardless of medical history. The currently recommended screenings for asymptomatic people were adopted because meta-analyses showed they reduced cancer mortality. In the US, the US Preventive Services Task Force keeps up with new studies and revises their recommendations: https://uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/home.

For people with family history or other risk factors, doctors will follow different screening guidelines or just order tests whenever they think it useful.