Comments on: Despite screaming headlines, England’s breast cancer screening computer glitch didn’t kill anyone https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2018/05/the-uks-breast-cancer-screening-computer-glitch-didnt-kill-anyone/ Mon, 07 May 2018 12:40:16 +0000 hourly 1 By: Kevin Lomangino https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2018/05/the-uks-breast-cancer-screening-computer-glitch-didnt-kill-anyone/#comment-259629 Mon, 07 May 2018 12:40:16 +0000 https://www.healthnewsreview.org/?p=168969#comment-259629 Hi Caroline,

Thanks for reading and commenting. However, your statement is inaccurate. The only colorectal cancer screening tests that have been proven efficacious in reducing colorectal cancer incidence and mortality, i.e., evaluated in randomized controlled trials, are fecal blood tests and flexible sigmoidoscopy. Your claims are based on observational studies, which cannot prove cause and effect and cannot be used as the basis for claiming a reduction in cancer deaths. Importantly, I also pointed out that no cancer screening test (including colonoscopy) has been shown in a randomized controlled trial to reduce TOTAL mortality, which is the best measure of whether lives are actually being “saved” or not.

Kevin Lomangino
Managing Editor

]]> By: Caroline Helwick https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2018/05/the-uks-breast-cancer-screening-computer-glitch-didnt-kill-anyone/#comment-259628 Mon, 07 May 2018 12:01:21 +0000 https://www.healthnewsreview.org/?p=168969#comment-259628 Colonoscopy, which is the the most effective form of colorectal cancer screening, HAS been shown in large studies to reduce deaths from colorectal cancer. This is from a landmark Canadian study by Baxter et al: Complete colonoscopy was strongly associated with fewer deaths from left-sided CRC (OR, 0.33 but not from right-sided CRC (Baxter N. Ann Int Med. 2008;150:1). More recently in a study of almost 5,000 veterans, Kahl et al found: Colonoscopy was associated with reduced mortality for left-sided cancer (OR, 0.28) and right-sided cancer (OR, 0.54]). The results were similar for patients who had undergone screening colonoscopy (overall OR, 0.33)

]]> By: Kate Gilderdale https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2018/05/the-uks-breast-cancer-screening-computer-glitch-didnt-kill-anyone/#comment-259627 Fri, 04 May 2018 13:59:40 +0000 https://www.healthnewsreview.org/?p=168969#comment-259627 Thank you so much for this. Over the years, I have spent a lot of time researching the pros and cons of screening and, as a result, I have never had a mammogram. Of course this is a deeply personal choice and one I would not try and push on others who have come to a different conclusion, but when I read such misleading headlines and reports, it really upsets me.

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