Clinical pathology selected abstracts
March 2024—Despite research into colorectal cancer screening and clinical experience, screening uptake remains low. Colorectal cancer (CRC) screening involves noninvasive tests, such as a fecal immunochemical test (FIT) and stool-based DNA tests, as well as invasive tests, such as colonoscopy. The latter has the best performance characteristics for early cancer and adenoma detection. The average adherence to CRC screening is 60.6 percent for U.S. patients aged 50 to 75 years, which is well below the 80 percent goal for adherence set by the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable and American Cancer Society. Offering stool-based tests to patients who refuse colonoscopy results in only a modest increase in adherence, to 67 percent.