Sigmoidoscopy fails to detect polyps in colon of two-thirds women

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2005

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Sigmoidoscopy, a technique commonly used to check for colon cancer, fails to show precancerous polyps in two-thirds of women tested, according to a study.

Earlier research had already showed a failure rate in men of 30 percent using the technique, which examines the lowest one-fourth of the colon, according to the study financed by the National Cancer Institute.

"Our study found that the sigmoidoscopy results told us little if anything about the health of the colon beyond the lower one-quarter reached by the sigmoidoscope," said study co-author Andrew Flood, epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota Cancer Center and School of Public Health.

"To detect polyps in the upper or proximal portion of the colon, which is where about...