The association between organised colorectal cancer screening strategies and reduction of its related mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: To assess the long-term association between organised colorectal cancer (CRC) screening strategies and CRC-relate mortality.

Methods: We systematically reviewed studies on organised CRC screening through PubMed, Ovid Medline, Embase and Cochrane from the inception. We retrieved characteristics of organised CRC screening from included literature and matched mortality (over 50 years) of those areas from the International Agency for Research on Cancer in May 2023. The variations of mortality were reported via the age-standardised mortality ratio. A random-effects model was used to synthesis results.

Results: We summarised 58 organised CRC screening programmes and recorded > 2.7 million CRC-related deaths from 22 countries where rollout screening programmes were performed. The CRC screening strategy with faecal tests (guaiac faecal occult blood test (gFOBT) or faecal immunochemical tests (FIT)) or colonoscopy as the primary screening offer was associated with a 41.8% reduction in mortality, which was higher than those offered gFOBT (4.4%), FIT (16.7%), gFOBT or FIT (16.2%), and faecal tests (gFOBT or FIT) or flexible sigmoidoscopy (16.7%) as primary screening test. The longer duration of screening was associated with a higher reduction in the pooled age-standardised mortality ratio. In particular, the pooled age-standardised mortality ratio became non-significant when the screening of FIT was implemented for less than 5 years.

Conclusions: A CRC screening programme running for > 5 years was associated with a reduction of CRC-related mortality. Countries with a heavy burden of CRC should implement sustainable, organised screening providing a choice between faecal tests and colonoscopy as a preferred primary test.

Keywords: Colorectal neoplasm; Early detection of cancer; Mortality; Secondary prevention.