Issues in Colorectal Cancer Screening in the Asian Pacific Area

While the guaiac-based fecal occult blood test (FOBT) has been found to be effective for population screening for colorectal cancer, immunochemical FOBT (IFOBT) deserves attention as offering superior sensitivity, usually with no major loss of specificity. A great deal of interest has been concentrated on sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy as alternatives but medical capacity is a major problem with these approaches, which have yet to be validated for general employment. Other major problems which have still to be overcome with regard to colorectal screening are physician and target population compliance with recommendations as well as ensuring that positives undergo appropriate diagnostic investigations. The APJCP/APOCP has an important role to play in their future solution.