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Lifestyle
as a predictor for colorectal cancer in asymptomatic individuals This was a cross-sectional study carried out within a randomised controlled colorectal cancer screening trial (Norwegian Colorectal Cancer Prevention (NORCCAP) project), aiming to see if a single-paged questionnaire was a useful tool in picking up high-risk individuals. The screening population was randomly drawn from the Norwegian population registry and consisted of men and women (1:1) aged 50-55 that were invited to a once-only Flexible Sigmoidoscopy examination with or without a combination of a fecal occult blood test (1:1). Among the 4111 subjects that attended for colorectal screening, 11% were diagnosed with low-risk adenomas, whereas 3% were carriers of advanced neoplasia (n=108). Participants with advanced neoplasia had in general a poorer lifestyle than subjects without neoplasia (n=3447), but smoking habits were the only independent modifiable risk factor for these most severe lesions when adjustments were made for possible confounders. Current smoking was, together with obesity, also found to be the most important risk factors for low-risk adenomas. These results support the notion that smoking is of importance also in the late steps in the colorectal neoplasia development. Furthermore, the present findings indicate that a short questionnaire may be adequate in picking up the most consistent associations between risk factors and colorectal neoplasia in screening populations of sufficient size. Bibliographical
reference:
Inger Kristin Larsen
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