A study soon to be published out of France reports a remarkable association between appendicitis & diagnosis of colon cancer.
Key takeaway:
- Patients' risk of colon cancer nearly quadrupled within a year of being treated for acute appendicitis.
- The study suggests that appendicitis is an early warning sign of colon cancer, not a cause of it. The risk of colon cancer was almost fourfold higher among patients treated for appendicitis than among control persons during the first year of follow-up
- Patients with appendicitis who were younger than 40 years had about a six-fold higher risk of having colon cancer.
- After 1 year, colon cancer rates were similar between the two arms.
The findings support routine colon cancer screening for adult patients with appendicitis.
