A recent CDC study found while the U.S. healthcare system has the capacity to reach the CDC's goal of screening 80 percent of adults by 2018 for colorectal cancer, the system is lagging.
In 2014, U.S. government agencies and their colorectal cancer prevention partners launched a national campaign to increase colorectal cancer screening rates in the country to 80 percent of adults, aged 50 years to 75 years, by 2018. CDC researchers used mathematical modeling to estimate the number of colonoscopies or fecal immunochemical tests that would be necessary every year to reach this goal.
Here are four insights:
1. Researchers found providers would need to conduct between5.1 million to 13 million colonoscopies per year to reach the goal, depending on which screening test providers first used.
2. The study also found U.S. providers could perform another 10.5 million colonoscopies every year.
3. Medical professionals performed around 15 million colonoscopies in the United States in 2012.
4. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cancer killer in the nation.