AMSTERDAM—Screening men and women for colorectal cancer (CRC) with either fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) or endoscopy markedly lowered disease incidence and mortality in a study of screening patter
AMSTERDAM—Screening men and women for colorectal cancer (CRC) with either fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) or endoscopy markedly lowered disease incidence and mortality in a study of screening patterns in 11 European countries over the last 20 years presented here at the 2013 European Cancer Congress by researchers from France, Australia, Italy and Belgium.
Professor Philippe Autier MD MPH PhD, Vice President Population Research at the International Prevention Research Institute, in Lyon, France discusses the study findings which were very clear because the different European countries had widely diverging policies on colorectal cancer screening, so the researchers were able to compare death rates in countries that had effective screening activities with those that did not. He concludes that the effectiveness of screening is proven because changes in colorectal cancer mortality are correlated with the level of screening uptake providing a strong rationale for national CRC screening programs.