Colonoscopic Screening and Risk of All-Cause and Colorectal Cancer Mortality in Young and Older Individuals

Purpose The incidence of early-onset colorectal cancer (CRC) and associated mortality have been increasing. However, the potential benefits of CRC screening are largely unknown in young individuals. We aimed to evaluate the effect of CRC screening with colonos-copy on all-cause and CRC mortality among young (aged < 45 years) and older (aged >= 45 years) individuals.Materials and Methods This cohort study included 528,046 Korean adults free of cancer at baseline who underwent a compre-hensive health examination. The colonoscopic screening group was defined as those who reported undergoing colonoscopy for CRC screening. Mortality follow-up until December 31, 2019 was ascertained based on nationwide death certificate data from the Korea National Statistical Office.Results Colonoscopic screening was associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality in both young and older individuals. Multivar-iable-adjusted time-dependent hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) for all-cause mortality comparing ever-to never-screening were 0.86 (0.75-0.99) for young individuals and 0.71 (0.65-0.78) for older individuals. Colonoscopic screenings were also associ-ated with a reduced risk of CRC mortality without significant interaction by age, although this association was significant only among participants aged >= 45 years, with corresponding time-dependent hazard ratios of 0.47 (0.15-1.44) for young individuals and 0.52 (0.31-0.87) for those aged >= 45 years.Conclusion Colonoscopic CRC screening decreased all-cause mortality among both young and older individuals, while significantly decreased CRC mortality was observed only in those aged >= 45 years. Screening initiation at an earlier age warrants more rigorous confirmatory studies.

Automated summary

This study evaluated the effect of colonoscopy screening on all-cause and CRC mortality in individuals under 45 years old and those 45 years and older. The results showed that colonoscopy screening was associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality in both age groups, and significantly reduced CRC mortality in individuals aged 45 years and older. Therefore, more rigorous confirmatory studies are needed to validate the benefits of early screening in reducing mortality.