• Farimah Rahimi, Reza Rezayatmand, Elaheh Najafi, Zahra Ravankhah, Elham Tabesh, and Peyman Adibi.
• Health Management and Economics Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
• Arch Iran Med. 2024 Aug 1; 27 (8): 407413407-413.

BackgroundIn Isfahan, the fecal immunochemical test (FIT) has been used since January 2016 as part of the Iran's Package of Essential Non-communicable Diseases (IraPEN) program for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. The test is recommended for people who are 50-70 years old. Then, those with positive results would be referred for colonoscopy. This study aims to describe the uptake of the program and its outcome.MethodsA retrospective observational study was performed by collecting data from Isfahan Vice-Chancellor for Health database for this study purpose. The number of participators, the number of positive FIT, and the number of detected polyps or cancers were determined.ResultsBetween 2016 and 2019, the number of participants in the program reached 345 207 individuals (nearly 40% of the eligible population of 874 674). Totally, 21 264 participants (6.1%) had positive tests, of whom about 20% underwent the recommended colonoscopy with available reports, and 971 (24%) and 110 (3%) patients were diagnosed with polyps and CRC, respectively.ConclusionOver four years of screening with FIT in Isfahan, 40% of the eligible population participated. Among those with positive FIT results, 20% underwent colonoscopy, and approximately 26% of these individuals were identified as having polyps or cancer. This study provides valuable insights into the uptake and outcomes of a population-based CRC screening program in Isfahan, Iran. The findings highlight the need for targeted interventions to increase participation rates and improve the detection of polyps and CRC cases.© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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