Triaging colorectal urgent referrals in the COVID-19 era using faecal immunochemical testing: a prospective UK real-world multicentre cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

During the early COVID-19 pandemic, UK guidelines advocated faecal immunochemical tests (FIT) with a threshold of 10 µg/g to help secondary care clinicians triage urgent suspected colorectal cancer (CRC) referrals. We aimed to evaluate the real-world performance and impact of FIT in a high-risk cohort referred against National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence NG12 (2015) criteria.

Methods

Multicentre prospective observational cohort study of FIT at all four secondary care hospitals in Devon (UK) between 1 April 2020 and 31 December 2020. FIT use was at the discretion of primary and secondary care clinicians. Incident CRC cases were identified ≥12 months after general practitioner (GP) referral using regional National Bowel Cancer Audit data linkage. We

SUBMITTER: Walker G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12306339 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature