Medical check-ups for intestinal cancer are hardly used

Only 20% of persons aged over 55 use colonoscopies for early detection of cancer, even though the statutory health insurance funds have covered the costs since 2002. This was shown by an analysis of the Bavarian Colonoscopy Database published in the current edition of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2008; 105(24): 434-40). http://www.aerzteblatt.de/v4/archiv/pdf.asp?id=60551 The authors evaluated 245 263 colonoscopies performed by the Bavarian Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians in 2006. The analysis showed that colonoscopy is an established, reliable and safe procedure for the early detection of colorectal cancer. This method detects an intestinal lesion in every fourth patient. As many as 1% of these lesions are due to a carcinoma. Advanced adenomas are often precursors of carcinoma... [read full story]