Mass Colorectal Cancer Screening

Abstract

I n the United States colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer related deaths (ACS, 1993). It is estimated that 57,000 Americans will die from colorectal cancer in 1993 alone (ACS, 1993). It has the distinction of being the most common type of cancer that affects males and females at approximately equal rates (ACS, 1980). In 1990 alone, more than 60,000 Americans died from colon or rectal cancers, and more than 150,000 new cases were diagnosed (DHHS, 1990; Eddy, 1990). In Minnesota, 2,471 cases of colorectal cancer were diagnosed in 1988, resulting in a rate of 41.9 per 100,000 for colon cancer and 18.1 per 100,000 for rectal cancer (males), which correlated closely with rates for the rest of the country (MDH, 1991). The overall 5 year survival rate for colon cancer approaches 90%, and is approximately 80% for rectal cancer (ACS, 1991), but only if the cancers are detected and treated while the lesions are still in the early, localized stage. However, because over 50% of the diagnoses are not made until after the disease is in a more advanced stage, half of the people who get this disease will die' from it (NCI, 1987). Besides the disease associated mortality, colorectal cancer and its