Screening for Colorectal Cancer in Adults at Average Risk: A Summary of the Evidence for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

PURPOSE: To assess the effectiveness of different colorectal cancer screening tests for adults at average risk. DATA SOURCES: Recent systematic reviews; Guide to Clinical Preventive Services, 2nd edition; and focused searches of MEDLINE from 1966 through September 2001. The authors also conducted hand searches, reviewed bibliographies, and consulted context experts to ensure completeness. STUDY SELECTION: When available, the most recent high-quality systematic review was used to identify relevant articles. This review was then supplemented with a MEDLINE search for more recent articles. DATA EXTRACTION: One reviewer abstracted information from the final set of studies into evidence tables, and a second…