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Updated: Apr 4, 2026

Competing-Risk Nomogram for Predicting Cancer-Specific Survival in Multiple Primary Colorectal Cancer Patients after Surgery
Published on: September 27, 2024
[Interval cancers and episode sensitivity in population-based screening programmes for colorectal cancer: a
Xènia Domènech1, Montse Garcia1, Llúcia Benito2
1Prevención y Control del Cáncer, Instituto Catalán de Oncología-IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, España.
Objective:
To describe interval cancers (IC) and the sensitivity of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening programmes.
Methods:
A systematic review of the literature was conducted through a MEDLINE (PubMed) search. The search strategy combined the terms 'interval cancer', 'false negative', 'mass screening', 'screening' 'early detection of cancer', 'colorectal cancer' and 'bowel cancer'. Inclusion criteria consisted of population-based screening programmes, original articles written in English or Spanish and publication dates between 1999/01/01 and 2015/02/28. A narrative synthesis of the included articles was performed detailing the characteristics of the screening programmes, the IC rate, and the information sources used in each study.
Results:
Thirteen articles were included. The episode sensitivity of CRC screening programmes ranged from 42.2% to 65.3% in programmes using the guaiac test and between 59.1% and 87.0% with the immunochemical test. We found a higher proportion of women who were diagnosed with IC and these lesions were mainly located in the proximal colon.
Conclusion:
There is wide variability in the IC rate in CRC programmes. To ensure comparability between programmes, there is a need for consensus on the working definition of IC and the methods used for their identification and quantification.
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