Feasibility of opportunistic colorectal cancer screening of hospitalized patients in tertiary care and community hospitals

Background Population screening for colorectal cancer (CRC) remains low, requiring alternative approaches for increasing participation. Opportunistic screening of hospitalized patients may aid in increasing uptake rates. Objective To assess whether inpatients can be recruited for opportunistic CRC screening using fecal immunochemical testing (FIT). Methods Inpatient charts were prospectively reviewed for study eligibility on admission of patients to the medical wards of 3 hospitals in Winnipeg, Canada. Eligible patients were approached for participation and consent. Inoculated FIT specimen collection tubes were sent to the hospital laboratory for testing. Patients with positive FIT results received a follow-up colonoscopy. Results In total, 1542 inpatient charts were screened for eligibility; 53 patients were identified for enrollment (51.9% were male; median age, 59 years), of whom 13 patients consented to participate but only 7 provided a stool specimen. One of those 7 patients had a positive FIT result. The overall screening rate was low, at 0.45%. The primary reason for exclusion of patients was age (outside of the range of 50-75 years), followed by patients having recent gastrointestinal bleeding and/or known intestinal diseases. Conclusions Our data suggest that it is infeasible to recruit inpatients for opportunistic CRC screening in routine clinical practice.