Author in the Room: Screening Colonoscopy for Older Females

May 2006 Author in the Room^® Teleconference

 

Author: William Taylor, MD

 

Article:  "A 71-Year-Old Woman Contemplating a Screening Colonoscopy"  

Summary Points:

• Embedded in experts’ recommendations for colorectal cancer screening are nearly impossible demands on primary care clinicians to discuss the pros and cons of various modalities for screening with each patient and to assess risk even to the detail of learning the pathology of the biopsy of relatives’ colonoscopies (e.g., adenomatous vs. hyperplastic polyps).
• The complex set of components involved in the decision to screen (or not) for colon cancer includes input from both the doctor (e.g., data about what might happen and how likely the possibilities are) and the patient (e.g., how the patient weighs the relative desirability of the various possible outcomes that result from the possible decisions).
• The decision to undertake a preventive maneuver involves weighing the risks, cost, and inconvenience of an intervention now for a potential benefit in the future.