Is the practice of colorectal cancer screening questionable after the NordICC trial was published?

First, CRC screening meets the vast majority, if not all, criteria of screening proposed by Wilson and Jungner (WHO), which remains a widely recognized standard. Keywords: cancer; colorectal; screening EN cancer colorectal screening 1 3 3 10/31/23 20231001 NES 231001 Worldwide, the incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) increased substantially in various countries, which could be attributed to the rising rate of lifestyle, metabolic, and environmental risk factors due to globalization, urbanization and westernization.[[1]] Nevertheless, the value of population-based, CRC screening has been challenged by recent evidence.[3] It was opined that CRC screening may offer limited value at the population level, mainly due to its modest impact on decreased CRC mortality based on findings from the NordICC trial, the first pragmatic, randomised controlled trial of colonoscopy screening.[4] According to the landmark study, which included data from 84,585 healthy subjects aged 55-64 years recruited from three European countries between 2009 and 2014, the risk ratio (0.90, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.64-1.16) and absolute risk reduction (-0.03, 95% CI -0.11-0.05) of mortality from CRC were not statistically significant. By all means, it is inappropriate to recommend CRC screening for all clinical consultations, but a large proportion of the population would benefit from screening, especially those with risk factors such as smoking and a family history of CRC. [Extracted from the article]