A general practice-based recruitment strategy for colorectal cancer screening

Objective: To determine whether a screening recruitment strategy for first degree relatives of people with colorectal cancer is effective in enabling eligible relatives to request screening from their general practitioner (GP) and to assess acceptability to GPs and patients. Methods: Thirty GPs, from 26 practices, and 303 of their patients aged over 50 who were first degree relatives of a person with colorectal cancer, participated in a randomised controlled trial of a GP-based recruitment strategy, in the Newcastle Area of New South Wales, Australia. Results: The proportion of relatives requesting screening was statistically significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group (18% compared to 4%, respectively; p=0.01). Conclusions: Interest in the study by GPs was low, however for GPs who were involved, the recruitment strategy did prompt first degree relatives to discuss screening. The strategy may be even more effective when combined with other interventions such as a media campaign. The results may be generalisable to feasibility studies of general population screening for colorectal cancer in Australia. Implications: The results of this work are potentially informative to public health practice in Australia given the ensuing pilot programs of colorectal cancer screening.