Funen faecal occult blood screening trial

The Funen trial offered biennial Haemoccult testing to 30,967 people aged 45 to 75 and compared them with an unscreened control group. Of those invited, 20,672 (67 percent) completed the first round and more than 90 percent accepted repeat rounds. Over ten years 481 screened and 483 control participants were diagnosed with colorectal cancer, but there were 205 deaths from it in the screening group against 249 in controls, a mortality ratio of 0.82 (95% CI 0.68 to 0.99, p=0.03). Incidence was unchanged and mortality fell, which is the signature of earlier detection rather than prevention; the flexible sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy trials that followed aimed at prevention by removing adenomas.