Current topics of colorectal cancer screening

Despite the recent advancement of the treatment including endoscopic resection, surgery, and systemic chemotherapy, mortality rate of colorectal cancer(CRC) has been increasing in Japan. Therefore, the strategy for CRC should be focused to both the early diagnosis by efficient screening and prevention. The screening using fecal occult blood test and subsequent total colonoscopy has been recognized as a gold standard of CRC screening, however, the checkup rate of these examinations is still very low in Japan. It is considered to be important to improve this checkup rate and now, the new modalities, such as computed tomographic colonography or capsule colon endoscopy, are expected to be involved in the clinical practice of CRC screening.