COLORECTAL CANCER SCREENING: FECAL OCCULT BLOOD TEST DURING THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK

Aims We aimed to investigate the changes on the frequency of performing FOBT test and CRC diagnosing in 2020 as comparison to the previous years.

Methods Retrospective study included all patients with positive FOBT between the years 2017 and 2020. Demographic, clinical and laboratory data were collected. Number of performed tests, positive tests and CRC diagnosis were collected. We compared the data of 2020 to the data of the years 2017-2019. The data were extracted using the MDClone platform of the largest health maintenance organization “Clalit” in Israel (about 4.7 million insured).

Results FOBTs were performed by 847,550 residents. 42,471 FOBTs were performed during 2020, in comparison to 158,147 tests during the years 2017-2019. In comparison to 2019 (44,997 tests), reduction of 5.6%, however a trend of decline in the number of tests performed was observed in the last years. Significant increase on the positivity of FOBTs in 2020 vs 2017-2019 was observed (10.5% vs 8.2%, p<0.001). Decline of the CRC among positive subjects were observed in 2020 (2% vs 2.6%).

Conclusions slight decrease on the number of the performed FOBTs in 2020 compared to the previous years, but with higher rate of positivity and lower rate of CRC.

Publication History

Article published online:
14 April 2022