Organized, Biennial FIT-Based Screening Linked to Lower Colorectal Cancer Mortality

TUESDAY, Aug. 11, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- An organized fecal immunochemical testing (FIT)-based colorectal cancer (CRC) screening program is associated with a sustained decline in CRC mortality, according to a study published online Aug. 5 in JAMA Network Open.Luis Bujanda, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of the Basque Country in Spain, and colleagues evaluated the association between an organized, biennial FIT-based screening program initiated in 2009 and targeting individuals aged 50 to 69 years and CRC-specific mortality among residents of the Basque Country in Spain (approximately 2.2 million inhabitants) between 2004 and 2024. The researchers found that 3.7 percent of the 438,134 total deaths were attributable to CRC. There was a decline in age-standardized CRC mortality from 32.8 deaths per 100,000 population in 2004 to 23.1 in 2024 (reduction of 29.6 percent). The decline in CRC mortality reached 50.1 percent in those aged 50 to 69 years (from 39.7 to 19.8 deaths per 100,000 population). There was a significant inflection point in 2012, three years after screening implementation. There was an estimated 46.2 percent relative reduction in CRC mortality in counterfactual analyses among those aged 50 to 69 years versus projected trends without screening. Among individuals aged 70 years or older, compared with projected rates, CRC mortality declined by 19.6 percent (from 165.4 to 132.9 deaths per 100,000 population), corresponding to a 45.4 percent relative reduction. Of the 4,892 CRCs detected through screening during the study period, 70.8 percent were diagnosed at stage I or II."These findings support the long-term benefit of organized FIT-based screening programs as a public health strategy to reduce CRC-related mortality," the authors write.Two authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.Abstract/Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Organized, Biennial FIT-Based Screening Linked to Lower Colorectal Cancer Mortality

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