Colonoscopy became ‘breaking news’ about a week ago. The preeminent medical journal, The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published a randomized trial assessing the effectiveness of screening colonoscopy in reducing the risk of contracting colon cancer and dying from it. The results were lackluster. While there is accumulated evidence that colonoscopy can reduce colon cancer risk, the bulk of this data has not been the results of randomized controlled trials, the gold standard in medical research. In the NEJM study, there was a group who was offered a screening colonoscopy and a separate control group who was not. Gastroenterologists, along with the medical community at large, have been preaching the lifesaving benefits of screening colonoscopy for decades. The simple strategy is to remove ‘pre-cancerous’ polyps that are lurking silently in the colon and to remove them before they have an opportunity to transform into cancer. What makes colonoscopy such an attractive
MD Whistleblower presents vignettes and commentaries on the medical profession. We peek 'behind the medical curtain' and deliver candor and controversy in every post.