Welcome  to  Public  Health  moment from  the  University  of  Minnesota. The  use  of  flexible  sigmoidoscopy  screening reduces  deaths  from  colorectal  cancer  by  more  than  25% That's  according  to  results  from the  first  randomized  clinical  trial  in the  United  States  that  looked  at the  effectiveness  of  sigmoidoscopy. Tim  Church,  University  of  Minnesota  Cancer  Prevention expert  155,000  people  were  involved  in  the  study, including  more  than  29,000  in  Minnesota. There  was  a  21%  reduction  in  the  incidence  of colorectal  cancer  in  the  screen  group when  compared  to  the  usual  care  group. That's  a  bit  more than  one  out  of  five  cancers  were  prevented. And  then  a  26%  reduction in  the  deaths  from  colorectal  cancer. Church  says  the  results  provide  patients  with  freedom  of choice  when  it  comes  to  screening  options for  colorectal  cancer. Now  we  know  for  certain  that  fecal  cult  blood  tests  work. We  know  now  that  flexible  sigmoidoscopy  works. Most  physicians  believe  that colonoscopy  is  an  effective  way  of  screening. Each  of  the  screening  methods has  its  own  strengths  and  weaknesses, and  people  have  different  preferences. The  bottom  line  is,  if you  want  to  get  screened  for  colorectal  cancer, you  have  a  wide  variety  of  choices. You  need  to  figure  out  what's  best  for  you, but  you  have  no  excuse  not  to be  screened  for  public  health  moment. I'm  Mark  Gerbert,  Son.