Screening for Colorectal Carcinoma in India: Real-World Scenario, Pitfalls, and Solutions
Among various cancer programs, screening sigmoidoscopy has proved to improve both CRC-specific mortality and all-cause mortality. Unfortunately, its utilization is suboptimal, at best. Even among the highly educated medical community, the real-world utility was only in 7.14% of the eligible population. Barriers include invasive nature of intervention, need for appropriate bowel preparation, operator dependence, and small but significant risk of serious toxicity. An important method of increasing utility of screening colonoscopy is use of a test that can identify high-risk population, who can then be persuaded to undergo screening colonoscopy. This is the value of recently developed noninvasive blood- and stool-based tests, like Guardant Health's Shield. Being U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved with specificity of 90% and sensitivity of 84%, it should be offered to all eligible persons who can afford it, thereby increasing colonoscopy use and potentially saving lives.
Authors
- Deepak Agrawal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7224-6921)
- Purvish M. Parikh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3813-8788)
- Adwaith Krishna Surendran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9659-7355)
- Mansi Agrawal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8484-5859)
- Praveen Nandha Kumar Pitchan Velammal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6983-3969)
- Anika Goel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-4631-8113)
- Ashutosh Pathak (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8078-1326)
- Mallika Mittal
- Karthik Kanna Venkatesh
- Vignesh Babu K
- Archana Sameer Vinakar
- Sarvesh Zope
Institutions
- Tirunelveli Medical College (IN)
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (IN)
- Madras Medical College (IN)
- Mahatma Gandhi University (IN)
- Government of India (IN)
- Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College (IN)
- Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (IN)
- Kakatiya University (IN)
- Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (IN)
- All India Institute of Medical Sciences Bhopal (IN)
- Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (IN)
- Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (IN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- South Asian Journal of Cancer
- Published
- 2024-10-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0045-1802655
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Colorectal Cancer Screening and Detection
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.13