Mayo Clinic Develops Pills as Alternative to Drinking Laxatives Before Cancer Screening

Researchers at Mayo Clinic have developed four new pills that are an effective alternative to drinking “unpleasant” laxatives in bowel cleansing that is required prior to virtual colonoscopy for cancer screening. "Some become so anxious about drinking so much liquid that they avoid the entire procedure, putting them at risk of undiagnosed cancer," the clinic said.

That effect has added to colorectal cancer being the second leading cause of cancer deaths among Americans, according to doctors.

But now with the four tiny pills, pictured the size of a round aspirin, there's another option that they say provides the same results of standard liquid laxatives.

For 88 per cent of colonoscopy patients, however, it's the only one required the Mayo Clinic stated.

The exception, or the 12 per cent, would be the cases that they find something requiring a standard colonoscopy.

"Our hope is that this will make people less anxious and more likely to get screened and will ultimately result in fewer deaths from colorectal cancer," the Daily Mail quoted C. Daniel Johnson, M.D., chair of the Department of Radiology at Arizona's Mayo Clinic as saying in a release.

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Doctors at the Mayo Clinic, which was the first to offer the screenings for routine care, recommend regular screenings for people over the age of 50 but admit that most do not.

Source-ANI