TUESDAY, May 21, 2024 (HealthDay News) — For adults who are not up to date with colorectal cancer screening, offering a choice of colonoscopy or fecal immunochemical testing (FIT) increases screening completion rates, according to a study published online April 30 in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Shivan J. Mehta, M.D., from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and colleagues conducted a randomized controlled trial at a community health center among patients aged 50 to 74 years who were not up to date with CRC screening. Patients were randomly assigned to receive colonoscopy only, active choice of colonoscopy or FIT, or FIT only in a 1:1:1 ratio. Participants received an outreach letter with testing instructions, a reminder letter at two months, and another reminder at three to five months.

The final analysis included 738 patients (mean age, 58.7 years). The researchers found that at six months, 5.6, 12.8, and 11.3 percent of participants had completed screening in the colonoscopy-only, active choice, and FIT-only arms, respectively. There was a significant increase in screening observed in the active choice and FIT-only arms compared with the colonoscopy-only arm.

“Offering the choice of colonoscopy or take-home kits [seems] to have the advantage of maximizing the rates of colonoscopy — the most effective screening tool — while not overloading individuals with too much of a choice, which could have lowered overall participation,” Mehta said in a statement.

Several authors disclosed ties to industry, including one who is a named inventor on a patent licensed to Novartis.

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