Report in English with a Dutch summary (KCE reports 45A)

KCE reports vol.45 Screening for Colorectal Cancer 125
7 ORGANISATION OF COLORECTAL CANCER
SCREENING IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES
7.1 INTRODUCTION
In 2003 the European Commission recommended to use FOBT as a screening
tool for colorectal cancer in men and women between 50 and 74 183. Following
this recommendation different pilot programs were launched in several
European member states in order to determine the best screening strategy and
the feasibility of a national screening program. In some European countries,
however, initiatives were already taken at the end of the nineties.
Only a few countries have adopted colorectal cancer screening as a public
health policy. In several countries such as Germany, the Czech Republic, France,
and the UK, FOBT screening or screening by endoscopy as a population
screening has been introduced on the regional level. Several countries have
programs conform the EC recommendations; others have ignored these
recommendations and offer colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy as a screening tool.
Also outside Europe, national colorectal cancer screening guidelines gave birth
to several initiatives.
In this chapter, an overview of screening programs, pilot studies or public health
programs in and outside Europe will be given. Recommendations and guidelines
with regard to surveillance programs for high risk groups have been described
in a previous chapter. As far as particular organised surveillance programs for
high risk groups exist, they will be highlighted in this chapter. Information was
collected from national and/or local governmental websites, and from private
agencies when relevant. In order to validate or add to this information, contact
was made with one or more experts in the specific country.
Table 28 summarizes the available screening programs and pilots in different
countries.