2021 BQ Journal Vol 42 - 10

PREVENTING CHRONIC DISEASE
PUBLIC

HEALTH

RESEARCH,

PRACTICE,

Volume 17, E123

AND

POLICY

OCTOBER 2020
ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Preventing Breast, Cervical, and Colorectal
Cancer Deaths: Assessing the Impact of
Increased Screening
Krishna P. Sharma, PhD1; Scott D. Grosse, PhD2; Michael V. Maciosek, PhD3; Djenaba Joseph, MD, MPH1;
Kakoli Roy, PhD4; Lisa C. Richardson, MD, MPH1; Harold Jaffe, MD5
Accessible Version: www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2020/20_0039.htm

leads initiatives to increase breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer
(CRC) screening. We assessed the number of avoidable deaths
from increased screening, according to USPSTF recommendations, for CRC and female breast and cervical cancers.

Suggested citation for this article: Sharma KP, Grosse SD,
Maciosek MV, Joseph D, Roy K, Richardson LC, et al.
Preventing Breast, Cervical, and Colorectal Cancer Deaths:
Assessing the Impact of Increased Screening. Prev Chronic Dis
2020;17:200039. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5888/pcd17.200039.

Methods

We used model-based estimates of avoidable deaths for the lifetime of single-year age cohorts under the current and increased use
of screening scenarios (data year 2016; analysis, 2018). We calculated prevented cancer deaths for each 1% increase in screening
uptake and extrapolated to current level of screening (2016), current level plus 10 percentage points, and increasing screening to
90% and 100% of the eligible population.

PEER REVIEWED
Summary
What is already known on this topic?
Screening for colorectal cancer and for female breast and cervical cancers can effectively reduce deaths from these cancers. Yet many preventive services, including cancer screening, remain underutilized in the United
States.

Results

Increased use of screening from current levels to 100% would prevent an additional 2,821 deaths from breast cancer, 6,834 deaths
from cervical cancer, and 35,530 deaths from CRC over a lifetime
of the respective single-year cohort. Increasing use of CRC
screening would prevent approximately 8.5 times as many deaths
as the equivalent increase in use of breast cancer screening (women only), although twice as many people (men and women)
would have to be screened for CRC.

What is added by this report?
Increased use of screening from current levels to 100% would prevent an
additional 2,821 deaths from breast cancer, 6,834 deaths from cervical
cancer, and 35,530 deaths from colorectal cancer over a lifetime of the respective single-year cohort. Increasing use of colorectal cancer screening
would prevent more deaths than an equivalent increase in breast and cervical cancer screening.
What are the implications for public health practice?
Public health programs incorporating strategies shown to be effective can
help increase screening rates. Organized screening approaches leveraging partnerships between public health and primary health care to implement such strategies could be used to reduce the prevalence of these
cancers.

Conclusions

A large number of deaths could be avoided by increasing breast,
cervical, and CRC screening. Public health programs incorporating strategies shown to be effective can help increase screening
rates.

Abstract

Introduction

The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends
select clinical preventive services with " A " and " B " recommendation grades for the eligible population. A grade " A " recommendation reflects high certainty of substantial net benefit from a ser-

The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends
select preventive clinical services, including cancer screening.
However, screening for cancers remains underutilized in the
United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors' affiliated institutions.

www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2020/20_0039.htm * Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
This publication is in the public domain and is therefore without copyright. All text from this work may be reprinted freely. Use of these materials should be properly cited.

Diagnostics I Pharmaceuticals I DxRx Solutions I Continuing Education I News
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http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2020/20_0039.htm https://www.doi.org/10.5888/pcd17.200039 http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2020/20_0039.htm

2021 BQ Journal Vol 42

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