Colorectal cancer: From prevention to personalized medicine

Table 1 Characteristics of some colorectal cancer screening programs worldwide

Country	Test	Periodicity	Target population (age)	Year2
Germany1	FOBT	Annual	50-54	1971
	FOBT or CS	Biennial/Every 10 yr	≥ 55
Italy	FOBT	Biennial	50-69/74	1982
	FS	Once-only	58-60
Israel	FOBT	Annual	50-74	early 1990s
Japan	FOBT	Annual	≥ 40	1992
United States1	FOBT	Annual	50-75	1994
	FS/FOBT	Every 5/Every 3 yr
	CS	Every 10 yr
Taiwan	FOBT	Biennial	50-69	1995
Spain	FOBT	Biennial	50-69	2000
Poland1	CS	Periodic	50-66	2000
Czech Republic1	FOBT	Annual	50-54	2000
	FOBT/CS	Biennial/Every 10 yr	≥ 55
France	FOBT	Biennial	50-74	2002
Finland	FOBT	Biennial	60-69	2004
South Korea	FOBT	Annual	≥ 50	2004
Latvia1	FOBT	Annual	≥ 50	2005
Australia	FOBT	Biennial	55-74	2002
England	FOBT	Biennial	50-74	2006
The Netherlands	FOBT	Biennial	60-69	2006
Canada				2007
Ontario	FOBT	Biennial	≥ 50
Manitoba	FOBT	Biennial	50-74
Croatia	FOBT	Biennial	50-74	2007
Scotland	FOBT	Biennial	50-74	2007
Sweden	FOBT	Biennial	60-69	2008

¹Most countries have population-based screening programs (national or regional) except Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, Poland and United States (which all have opportunistic screening).

²It refers to the year which some kind of screening began (pilot, population-based or opportunistic). FOBT: Fecal occult blood test; FS: Flexible Sigmoidoscopy; CS: Colonoscopy.