Fecal occult blood screening for colorectal cancer: open issues.
Data from seven case-control and--mainly--three randomized clinical trials consistently indicate that biennial fecal occult blood screening (FOBT) can reduce colorectal cancer (CRC) mortality by approximately 20% after 10-18 years. The reduction may be greater in compliant subjects. In the long-term, incidence also appears to be reduced. There are suggestions that the effect of annual screening may be greater, although data are inadequate to quantify the potential advantages of annual versus biennial screening. The issue of the effectiveness of FOBT in the general population and, more important, of comparative cost-effectiveness with other possible screening tests for CRC, however, remain open to discussion.
La Vecchia
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Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, & Istituto di Statistica Medica e Biometria, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy. epidemiology@marionegri.it
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D008910:Minnesota; D009426:Netherlands; D009780:Occult Blood; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012812:Sigmoidoscopy; D013997:Time Factors; D006113:United Kingdom