Key clinical point: A single flexible sigmoidoscopy (FS) at the age of 55-64 years substantially reduced the risk for colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence and CRC-related mortality, which was maintained up to 15 and 19 years, respectively.
Major finding : CRC incidence and CRC mortality reduced by 19% (rate ratio [RR], 0.81; 95% CI, 0.71-0.93) and 22% (RR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.61-0.98), respectively, in the group that underwent FS vs usual care, with the reduction mainly driven by a reduced incidence of distal CRC (RR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.59-0.84) and distal CRC mortality (RR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.50-0.95).
Study details: Findings are from SCORE randomized control trial including 34,272 participants who expressed interest in having FS and were randomly assigned to FS (n=17,136) or usual care (n=17,136) groups.
Disclosures: The trial was supported by Italian Association for Cancer Research, Italian National Research Council, and others. C Semore declared receiving research funding, travel support, and paid/unpaid leadership or fiduciary role for various sources.
Source: Senore C et al. Ann Intern Med. 2021 Nov 9. doi: 10.7326/M21-0977 .