Miguel Bronchud, Veteran Cancer Clinician and Researcher, shared on LinkedIn:
“Progress in Colorectal Cancer Mortality Across 48 Countries: The Impact of Screening and Early Detection’
Authors: Darren R. Brenner
JCO Glob Oncol 12, e2500732(2026)
Volume 12, Number 7
DOI: 10.1200/GO-25-00732
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality globally, summing up cancers in men and women.
Known associations have been established between tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, excess body size and adiposity, and energy-dense, nutrient-poor diets.
Interesting epidemiologic trends have been observed in populations that have migrated from areas of lower CRC incidence to areas of higher incidence with rates in the recently migrated populations often rapidly increasing within a single generation to match those of the higher population.
CRC is also a cancer where transitions from benign hyperplastic or even dysplasia lesions (like colorectal polyps) require time to develop into full clinical cancers – opening a clinical window for early detection and secondary prevention opportunities.
This recent study authors estimate CRC mortality and screening avoided deaths (1950-2019) for both sexes across 48 countries and contextualize these findings by comparing differences in background risk, epidemiologic risk factors, and screening practices.
Their analyses included CRC incidence and mortality data from 48 countries in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.
No countries in this analysis have a low United Nations Human Development Index, and most countries (81.3%) had a very high level of human development.
They used the World Health Organization’s Global Cancer Observatory web – based platform and obtained age – specific CRC mortality rates (ASMRs) and population counts from 1950 to 2019. All countries with available data were included.
In this study, the authors reported ASMR and population counts by sex and country in 5-year age groups.
There has been a notable reduction in CRC (standardized mortality ratios of <0.7) mortality in 17.1% of countries for males and (oddly enough) only 4.9% of countries for females, largely associated with screening practices.
Although peak CRC mortality has not been reached in all the countries analyzed in this study, authors estimate that over 2.8 million CRC deaths have been avoided among the included countries.
Thus, CRC mortality appears to increase in countries undergoing westernization of their cultures; however, robust CRC screening programs can substantially mitigate CRC mortality and should be implemented rapidly in jurisdictions which do not already have them.
There is still ample room for improvement in screening program rates (in many countries only half of the population at risk take the tests) and also in the methods of screening and detection, with increasing sophistication and effectiveness of molecular screening from blood tests markers or liquid biopsies.”
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