[Status quo of colorectal cancer screening in Guangzhou community]

The incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) in China is gradually increasing as a result of the economic development and dietary change. Since it usually takes a long time for precancerous lesions (e.g. adenoma) to develop into cancer, proper cancer screening is useful to discover and to remove these early lesions, while the patients can achieve long-term survival. Hence, developing a well-organized cancer screening system is necessary for the early detection and intervention of potential CRC. Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC) has been developing a community-based cancer screening program, using questionnaires and fecal occult blood test to identify the residents with high risks of CRC. These people will be further subjected to colonoscopy and biopsy for the suspected lesions. Among the 1 030 participants in Guangzhou Yuexiu District who received colonoscopy at SYSUCC from January to November in 2015, polyps, inflammation or tumors were found in 361 (35.0%) patients, in whom 13 were colorectal cancers (1.3%), 327 were polyps (31.7%), 239 were adenoma (23.2%), and 140 were prophase adenoma(13.6%). Besides, no significant difference of CRC detection rate between male and female was found (P>0.05), while the detection rate of polyps and prophase adenoma was higher in male than that in female, which also increased significantly with age (P<0.01). We envision such systematic cancer screening extremely useful to enhance the understanding of cancer screening in the public and eventually to realize the early detection and treatment of cancer.