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CDC: US has Sufficient Health Care Resources to Achieve CRC Screening Goals
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CDC researchers estimate that U.S. health care facilities have the capacity to meet the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable’s goal of screening at least 80% of adults aged 50 to 75 years for colorectal cancer by 2018.
“Colorectal cancer is the second leading cancer killer for men and women in the U.S., but it doesn’t have to be,” Djenaba Joseph, MD, MPH, medical director of the colorectal cancer control program at CDC, said in a press release. “Screening saves lives. The good news is that our modeling shows that the U.S. health care system has the potential to meet our national goal.”
Djenaba Joseph
Joseph and colleagues conducted the Microsimulation Screening Analysis-Colon model to estimate the number of colonoscopies or fecal immunochemical tests (FIT) that would be used in the U.S. between 2014 and 2040 assuming a national screening program with 80% participation was implemented over 10 years beginning in 2014.
They also used data from 1,269 facilities that participated in the 2012 Survey of Endoscopic Capacity to estimate the actual number of colonoscopies performed annually as well as the maximum additional number that could be performed.
The model showed that if a program using FIT as the primary screening method was implemented, 47 million FITs and 5.1 million colonoscopies would be needed each year by 2024. If a program using colonoscopy as the only screening method was implemented, 11 to 13 million colonoscopies would be needed per year.
Moreover, the survey data showed that 15 million colonoscopies were performed in 2012, and that another 10.5 million could be performed each year. Thus, the U.S. health care system has sufficient capacity to screen 80% of eligible individuals with FIT, colonoscopy or a mix of these tests.
“Recent analyses estimated that reaching this goal would avert 280,000 new cases of CRC and 200,000 deaths from CRC by 2030,” the researchers wrote. “Future analyses should take into account the geographic distribution of the colonoscopy capacity and screening need to determine whether there is a surplus of capacity in some areas of the country along with an insufficient capacity in others.” – by Adam Leitenberger
Disclosures: Battelle had a contract with the CDC for this study.
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