Round one of the Adelaide and Meath Hospital/Trinity College Colorectal Cancer Screening Programme: programme report and analysis based on established international key performance indices.

BACKGROUND: In Ireland, colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer in men, after prostate cancer, and the second most frequently diagnosed cancer in women, after breast cancer. By 2020, the number of new cases diagnosed annually in Ireland is projected to have increased by 79% in men and 56% in women. Organised screening for CRC is already underway or is in the process of being rolled out in several European countries, either at a regional or national level. The Adelaide and Meath Hospital/ Trinity College Dublin Colorectal Cancer Screening Programme (TTC-CRC-SP) is Ireland's first pilot population based bowel screening programme.

METHOD: Based on a biennial test model the pilot aimed to assess the accuracy of FIT and to evaluate the whole programme based on established international key performance indices.

RESULTS: To date 9,993 individuals aged 50-74 years have been invited to participate in the TTC-CRC-SP with over 5,000 FIT's analysed. Overall uptake was 51% and FIT positivity was 10%. The programme has undertaken over 400 screening colonoscopies and detected 154 precancerous adenomas and 38 cancerous lesions.

CONCLUSIONS: The first round of The Adelaide and Meath Hospital Tallaght/Trinity College Dublin Colorectal Cancer Screening Programme has been highly successful and confirmed that there is an advantage for FIT based two stage bowel cancer screening programmes.