THURSDAY, April 30, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Colorectal cancer (CRC) screening participation is higher among primary care patients from community health centers receiving fecal immunochemical test (FIT)-DNA compared with those receiving FIT, according to a study published online April 27 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Folasade P. May, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues compared two mailed population outreach approaches to increase CRC screening uptake among screening-eligible adults in community health centers in a pragmatic cluster randomized clinical trial. Participants were English- or Spanish-speaking primary care patients aged 45 to 75 years who were due for CRC screening. Patients received either mailed FIT with automated text message outreach from study personnel or mailed FIT-DNA with the manufacturer's outreach protocol (2,435 and 2,692 adults, respectively). Participants in randomized sites in Boston and Los Angeles with an abnormal FIT or FIT-DNA result were offered standardized navigation to colonoscopy.
The researchers found that at 90 and 180 days, screening participation was significantly higher in the FIT-DNA group than the FIT group (27.9 versus 22.6 percent and 31.7 versus 26.7 percent, respectively). Screening participation was higher at 90 days in Boston than Los Angeles (28.4 versus 23.1 percent). Overall, 36.0 percent of the 100 individuals with an abnormal stool test result completed a colonoscopy within 180 days.
"Rates of colorectal cancer are rising, but many eligible people are unscreened, especially in community health centers," coauthor Jennifer Haas, M.D., from Mass General Brigham in Boston, said in a statement. "The goal of our research was to help design an intervention to specifically benefit people who receive care in these settings."
Several authors disclosed ties to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Exact Sciences; FIT-DNA kits were provided in-kind from Exact Sciences.
