NEW YORK (Cancer Online) - Although it is estimated this year 147,000 Americans will develop colorectal cancer and 57,000 will die from it, a recent study in the Annals of Internal Medicine reported that many patients with a history of low-risk polyp removal have been subjected to unnecessary colonoscopies.
According to Dr. Pauline Mysliwiec, an assistant professor of gastroenterology at the University of California Davis, ¡°when it¡¯s used inappropriately, it strains the health care resources and puts patients at unnecessary risk.¡±
Although a colonoscopy is the best way to screen for colon cancer, it is recommended that people over the age of 50 be screened every 10 years. In the study by Mysliwiec and colleagues, 24% of gastroenterologists and 54% of general surgeons had suggested routine colonoscopies to patients with a history of a small benign hyperplastic polyp between 1999 and 2000.
Considering that the cost of a colonoscopy is approximately $1500-$1700, and that the waiting time for the procedure has significantly increased, Mysliwiec and colleagues feel that the overuse of this procedure ¡°could mean reduced access for symptomatic patients and those with limited means.¡±
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