Colorectal cancer, as this Reuters story says, is the third most often diagnosed cancer in the world, totaling one million cases and 600,000 deaths per year.

It has been hard to diagnose early, which is the key to success.

British researchers, published online today in The Lancet, may have found that key.

This is one of those times when good science, good medical practice and a good cost-effective tool may come together— saving lives and sparing patients rigorous treatment.

If this finding holds up with additional research studies to confirm it, this is an enormous breakthrough for the world.

Reuters

“Screening 55 to 64-year-olds with an examination of the lower colon and rectum using a small camera can cut death rates from colorectal cancer by 43 percent, British scientists said on Wednesday.

“Colorectal cancer is the third most frequently diagnosed cancer worldwide, accounting for more than a million cases and around 600,000 deaths every year.

“Beating the disease is strongly linked to how early it is detected, with survival rates of around 90 percent for cancers that are found early and have not spread.”

…”But Wendy Atkin from Imperial College London and Jane Wardle from University College London said their study showed more lives, and money, could be saved if screening used sigmoidoscopy — a small, flexible camera that is inserted into the rectum.

“Economic analyses suggest … a once-only flexible sigmoidoscopy screen at age 55 or 60 years would be cost saving, largely because of the avoided costs of treatment,” they wrote.

Source: Reuters, April 27, 2010

Citation: The Lancet, Early Online Publication, 28 April 2010 doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60551-X