Colorectal Cancer Screening (PDQ®)–Health Professional Version

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Changes to This Summary (08/02/2018)

The PDQ cancer information summaries are reviewed regularly and updated as new information becomes available. This section describes the latest changes made to this summary as of the date above.

Evidence of Benefit

Revised text to state that, after 11 years of follow up, in the total screening group compared with the controls, there was a 20% reduction in colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence and a 27% reduction in CRC mortality, with no difference in all-cause mortality in the NORCCAP screening trial of flexible sigmoidoscopy and fecal occult blood test.

Added text to state that extended sigmoidoscopy follow-up to a median of 14.8 years revealed a 22% reduction in CRC incidence and a 21% reduction in CRC mortality; outcome data were also reported separately by gender indicating an effect in men but little or no effect in women. Also added that in women, the CRC incidence hazard ratio (HR) was 0.92, and the CRC mortality ratio was 1.01; in men, the CRC incidence HR was 0.66, while the CRC mortality ratio was 0.63 (cited Holme et al. as reference 44).

Evidence of Harms

Added text to state that a recent study of three major hospitals found evidence that 71% of endoscopes tested positive for bacteria after cleaning and high-level disinfection of the scopes; this raises concern for endoscopy-associated pathogen transmission and patient safety, although no patients were involved in the study and the implications for patients are unknown (cited Ofstead et al. as reference 1).

This summary is written and maintained by the PDQ Screening and Prevention Editorial Board, which is editorially independent of NCI. The summary reflects an independent review of the literature and does not represent a policy statement of NCI or NIH. More information about summary policies and the role of the PDQ Editorial Boards in maintaining the PDQ summaries can be found on the About This PDQ Summary and PDQ® - NCI's Comprehensive Cancer Database pages.

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