Interval cancers in a FOBT-based colorectal cancer population screening programme: implications for stage, gender and tumour site

Abstract

Although GFOBT screening is associated with substantial interval cancer rates that increase with screening round, the absolute numbers do not. Interval cancers are associated with a better prognosis than cancers arising in a non-screened population, and GFOBT appears to preferentially detect cancers in men and the left side of the colon at the expense of cancers in women and in the right colon and rectum.