Colonoscopies could be halved in patients who have had low-risk adenomas removed, freeing up overstretched services, new guidelines suggest.

The updated Cancer Council Australia guidance says it’s safe to wait a decade before carrying out a follow-up colonoscopy in these patients, rather than routinely performing one five years after polypectomy as advised in its 2011 guidelines. 

This will reduce “over-servicing”, releasing valuable appointments for symptomatic patients or those with a positive faecal occult blood test, according to the chair of the council’s colonoscopy surveillance guidelines working party, Sydney gastroenterologist, Dr Cameron Bell.

“Colonoscopy is an invasive procedure so should only be recommended when necessary and at the right intervals. Yet we know that Australia is currently performing almost one million colonoscopies a year – many of which may be unnecessary,” he says.