Apollo Cancer Centres Launches A Comprehensive Colorectal Cancer Screening Program ColFit

News Desk, News Nation 360 : ColFit is a thorough screening program that Apollo Cancer Centres (ACC) has introduced in response to the increase in colorectal cancer (CRC) cases throughout India. Its goal is to identify and prevent colorectal cancer early on. In addition to addressing the alarming trend of late-stage diagnoses, which now result in poor outcomes and increased healthcare responsibilities, this program seeks to increase survival rates and lower treatment costs. In India, a sizable fraction of CRC patients are discovered at advanced stages, lowering survival rates and raising treatment costs despite although the disease is highly preventable and treatable with early detection. ColFit, a centre programme by Apollo Cancer Centres, is designed to increase colorectal cancer (CRC) screening among age groups in India, focusing on early detection because of the country's high absolute number of cases despite a relatively low age-standardized rate (ASR) of 7.2 per 100,000 males and 5.1 per 100,000 females, with a disconcerting five-year survival rate of less than 40% and a worrying trend of decreasing rectal cancer survival in some registries as noted by the CONCORD-2 study; CRC tends to present with easily missed symptoms like persistent alterations in bowel habits, rectal bleeding, unexplained weight loss, and persistent abdominal pain, with important risk factors like low-fibre diet, lack of physical activity, obesity, genetic syndromes, and a positive family history of CRC, hence making early identification of these critical for prevention; the novel ColFit program involves the application of the Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT), a non-invasive and highly sensitive screening method identifying hidden blood in stool, a likely preliminary CRC indicator, convenient because it takes just one sample, has higher sensitivity, and requires no dietary restriction; the ColFit screening is done through registration and risk stratification, classifying patients into average-risk (45+ years without family history) who are subjected to FIT and stool tests, and individuals at higher risk (with family history, genetic syndromes, or inflammatory bowel disease) advised for FIT and colonoscopy, followed by analysis and diagnosis where abnormal results are followed up with further stool analysis for occult blood or DNA mutations, and colonoscopy findings are evaluated for polyps or tumours, and lastly, follow-up and counselling where negative cases have periodic follow-up advice (1-10 years), while positive cases are further investigated including biopsies, and all patients are given post-screening advice on lifestyle changes, individualized screening plans, and genetic counselling in high-risk patients, to ensure an end-to-end approach for early identification, timely intervention, and effective prevention to drastically eliminate the probability of progression of CRC.

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