It studied interval colorectal cancer in Australia's National Bowel Cancer Screening Program, linking Queensland screening and cancer registry records. Participants aged 50-74, screened in 2018-2022, had faecal haemoglobin (f-Hb) below the 20 µg/g positive cut-off in both samples. Among 1,083,149 negative episodes, 586 interval cancers occurred, with higher risk in older people and males (adjusted HR 1.28). Against f-Hb of 0-5 µg/g, levels just below the cut-off (>15 to <20 µg/g) had an adjusted HR of 14.93. The 24-month risks were 35.7 and 504.5 per 100,000 episodes respectively. The f-Hb analysis was complete-case, covering only 326,931 episodes and 138 cancers.
Why it is interesting: A single negative result hides a wide spread of cancer risk. In the quantitative cohort of 138 cancers, no clear sex difference remained after adjusting for faecal haemoglobin.
Cite this item
BibTeX
Free sign-up. A digest of the new papers twice a week, grouped by domain.
Other drivers in Health today
-
Cancer
Where is cancer incidence rising and falling, what screening and new tests find earlier, and what treatment has done to survival.
13 this week -
Obesity, diabetes and GLP-1
Are obesity and diabetes still rising, what behavioural change and public policy do, and what difference do GLP-1s and other similar drugs make.
11 this week -
Heart and stroke
Whether deaths from heart disease and stroke have stopped falling, what is found earlier, what treatment and prevention do now, and what the deaths say.
6 this week -
Mental health
Deaths by suicide, the life expectancy gap in severe mental illness, and the physical disease that follows it: what mental illness costs in lives.
6 this week -
Dementia
Whether dementia is becoming more or less common, what is now found, what treatment and prevention do, and what the deaths say.
6 this week -
Frailty and multimorbidity
Whether the years added after 85 are healthy ones, how frailty and multiple conditions are measured, and where the data run out.
1 this week
