Rapid communicationsIs there endoscopic capacity to provide colorectal cancer screening to the unscreened population in the United States?
Section snippets
Materials and methods
We designed a forecasting model to (1) estimate the number of average-risk people aged 50 years or older who have not been screened for colorectal cancer, (2) describe the sociodemographic characteristics of this population, and (3) estimate the annual number of procedures required to provide screening and follow-up examinations for this population.
Results
Of the 70.1 million persons in the United States aged 50 years or older at average risk for colorectal cancer, 28.3 million people (40.4%) have been screened within recommended intervals: approximately 15.7 million with endoscopy (flexible sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy) only, 6.7 million with FOBT only, and 5.9 million with both FOBT and endoscopy. The remaining 41.8 million people have not been screened for colorectal cancer (Figure 1). Of those, approximately 23.2 million are women (55%), 38.5
Discussion
We present the first national estimate of the size of the unscreened population and new results on the capacity to screen the entire eligible US population for colorectal cancer. Our results show that 41.8 million US adults have not been screened for colorectal cancer according to national guidelines. If all of the currently available endoscopic capacity were used for screening, tests would be immediately available for an FOBT screening program, where the only necessary endoscopy would be
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Cited by (0)
- 1
S.K.C.’s current affiliation is: Epidemiology Program Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.
- 2
N.-A.M.M.’s current affiliation is: National Immunization Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.