Impact of changes to the interscreening interval and faecal immunochemical test threshold in the national bowel cancer screening programme in England: results from the FIT pilot study.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

The NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme (BCSP) faces endoscopy capacity challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic and plans to lower the screening starting age. This may necessitate modifying the interscreening interval or threshold.

Methods

We analysed data from the English Faecal Immunochemical Testing (FIT) pilot, comprising 27,238 individuals aged 59-75, screened for colorectal cancer (CRC) using FIT. We estimated screening sensitivity to CRC, adenomas, advanced adenomas (AA) and mean sojourn time of each pathology by faecal haemoglobin (f-Hb) thresholds, then predicted the detection of these abnormalities by interscreening interval and f-Hb threshold.

Results

Current 2-yearly screening with a f-Hb threshold of 120 μg/g was estimated to generate 16,092 c

SUBMITTER: Li SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9553931 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature