Not all experts agree with that approach.
"There are other methods that are acceptable if you choose not to get colonoscopy," said Robert Smith, director of cancer screening at the American Cancer Society. "Not all women are going to have access to colonoscopy or affordable colonoscopy."
Virtual CT colonoscopy may be as effective as a colonoscopy for detecting serious lesions, Smith said. Other screening tests include fecal occult blood tests and sigmoidoscopy, he said.
For women who have a low risk of colon cancer, other screening methods are effective, Smith said. "However, for women who have a family history or personal history of colorectal cancer, colonoscopy is the preferred test," he said.
More information
For more on woman and cancer, visit the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
SOURCES: Michael Stefanek, Ph.D., behavioral research director, Behavioral Research Center, and Robert Smith, Ph.D., director, cancer screening, both American Cancer Society, Atlanta; Oct. 26, 2007, teleconference with Douglas W. Laube, M.D., M.Ed., immediate past president, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and chairman, department of obstetrics and gynecology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison
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