New study shows colorectal cancer screening could save more than 200,000 lives by 2030

2015 Dress in Blue Eve at Denver City and County Building

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Public and private cancer organizations nationwide are working toward a goal of making sure 80 percent of the population is screened for colorectal cancer. A paper was just published online in Cancer concludes that increasing CRC screening rates to 80% by 2018 would reduce CRC incidence rates by 17 percent and mortality rates by 19 percent during short-term follow-up and by 22 percent and 33 percent, respectively, during extended follow-up. These reductions would amount to a total of 277,000 averted new cancers and 203,000 averted CRC deaths from 2013 through 2030.