Background: First degree relatives of patients with colorectal carcinoma are at a higher risk of having the disease than the general population. Therefore, they should be subjected to screening colonoscopy.
Aim: To assess the effectiveness of colonoscopy among first degree relatives of patients with colorectal carcinoma.
Material and methods: A free colonoscopy was offered to first degree relatives of patients operated on for colorectal cancer between 1998 and 2000. As inclusion criteria, subjects had to be asymptomatic, older than 40 years or less than 10 years younger than the index case. Each subject was contacted twice, inviting him/her to have a colonoscopy performed.
Results: Two hundred forty three relatives were contacted for the study and in 76, a colonoscopy was performed. Among the latter, a neoplasm was found in 13 (17%): One adenocarcinoma and 12 adenomas. Three of these lesions were located in the right colon. The main reason given by the 176 subjects that did not agree to have a colonoscopy was lack of interest.
Conclusions: Screening colonoscopy is effective to detect adenoma and adenocarcinoma among first degree relatives of patients with colorectal carcinoma, however only 31% of all potential relatives agreed to undergo a colonoscopy.