Survival in colorectal cancer patients diagnosed by screening colonoscopy

Background: In Germany, screening colonoscopy was first established in 2002 as part of the national cancer screening program. Our objective was to evaluate whether colorectal cancer (CRC) survival differs when CRC is diagnosed by screening colonoscopy (S-CRC) vs. diagnostic colonoscopy (D-CRC). Methods: In this long-term, retrospective, multicenter, observational study of 10 private gastroenterology practices in Germany we investigated survival in 60 patients diagnosed with CRC during screening colonoscopy and 252 patients during diagnostic colonoscopy in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Our main outcome measure was surviva…