title: Screening for colorectal carcinoma.
abstract: Since the introduction in the Federal Republic of Germany of free routine screening for colorectal carcinoma (digital examination of the rectum in 1971; test for occult blood in the faeces in 1977), the number of Dukes' stage A cases diagnosed at one hospital has increased by 30%. The average interval between onset of symptoms and diagnosis has shortened from 5 to 3.8 months, and the proportion of inoperable carcinomas has decreased by 10%.
mesh_terms: D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005860:Germany, West; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012004:Rectal Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies