Colorectal Cancer Study of Austria (CORSA): A Population-Based Multicenter Study

The Colorectal cancer Study of Austria (CORSA) is comprised more than 13,500 newly diagnosed colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, patients with high- and low-risk adenomas as well as population-based controls. The recruitment for the CORSA biobank is performed in close cooperation with the invited two-stage CRC screening project "Burgenland PREvention trial of colorectal Disease with ImmunologiCal Testing" (B-PREDICT). Annually, more than 150,000 inhabitants of the Austrian federal state Burgenland aged between 40 and 80 are invited to participate using FIT-tests as an initial screening. FIT-positive tested participants are offered a diagnostic colonoscopy and are asked to take part in CORSA, sign a written informed consent, complete questionnaires concerning dietary and lifestyle habits and provide an ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) blood sample as well as a stool sample. Additional CRC cases have been recruited at four hospitals in Vienna and a hospital in lower Austria. A major strength of CORSA is the population-based controls who are FIT-positive and colonoscopy-confirmed to be free of polyps and/or CRC.