Women really ARE from Venus ▸

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While the UK tools up to introduce national colorectal cancer screening in 2006, elsewhere debate continues as to which screening test to use. In the USA, flexible sigmoidoscopy has been described as the equivalent of unilateral mammography while in Europe colonoscopic screening is generally regarded as unsuitable for population screening on the grounds of its acceptability and safety.

This second paper from a group working in four US military hospitals reports the results of colonoscopy screening of 1463 women aged 40–79 years and compares their findings with those from their earlier study of men. All were asymptomatic and had negative faecal occult blood tests and no other indications of possible colon cancer (anaemia, unexplained weight loss, rectal bleeding, etc) in the recent past.

A total of 72 women (4.5%) were found to have advanced neoplasia, defined as either cancer (n = 1), a villous adenoma, or an adenoma either >1 cm or showing high grade dysplasia, almost half the prevalence they had found earlier in men (8.6%). Advanced neoplasia was found …