| The importance of colorectal cancer (CRC) care is highlighted by the fact that CRC remains the third most common cancer as well as the third leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and women in the U.S. Given the difficulty in widespread primary prevention strategies to decrease CRC risk, screening has been considered the most powerful public health tool to reduce the CRC mortality. Colonoscopy with polypectomy is the cornerstone of effective prevention. The recent reductions in CRC incidence and mortality in the U.S. have been largely attributed to the widespread uptake of CRC screening colonoscopy which the U.S. multi-society task force on CRC implemented in clinical practice. The implemented CRC screening colonoscopy appears effective but many challenges still remain. These are for examples provider competency (e.g. adenoma detection rate), quality of bowel preparation, optimal surveillance intervals after polypectomy and patient adherence. Growing evidence also has suggested the increasing incidence of CRC in younger people, which has raised awareness of the importance of risk stratification for screening colonoscopy. In this session, I will provide an overview of the established U.S. CRC screening guideline and discuss the area of future research needed. |
