Nottingham faecal occult blood screening trial

Between 1981 and 1991 Nottingham randomised 152,850 people to be offered a Haemoccult faecal occult blood test every two years or to nothing at all; the control group were not even told. Fewer than six in ten of those offered screening completed at least one test, and only 38 percent completed every test they were offered. Even so, 20 percent of the cancers found in the screened group were stage A against 11 percent in the control group, and after a median 7.8 years there were 360 colorectal cancer deaths in the screened group against 420 in the control group, a 15 percent reduction (odds ratio 0.85, 0.74 to 0.98, p = 0.026). The authors concluded that a national programme should be considered. It began in England in 2006.