Issues

In Brazil, colorectal cancer is the second most common cancer among men and women and exhibits high mortality rates, partially due to late-stage presentation. To date, Brazil has not implemented a nationally organized colorectal screening program. Barretos Cancer Hospital is one of the largest cancer hospitals in Brazil, which cares for underserved healthcare patients from all over the country. Barretos Cancer Hospital developed a FIT-based organized colorectal screening program as part of the efforts to improve CRC outcomes. In the study starting on page 241, Guimarães and colleagues demonstrated that this colorectal cancer screening program achieved desirable quality metrics aligned with the EU Guidelines’ recommendations. Further, a shift towards earlier stages seen in screening-detected CRCs suggests an exciting opportunity to improve CRC outcomes. The cover image shows the distribution of screening participants across the Brazilian geographical regions, where the darkest green corresponds to the highest number of participants. The red dot is Barretos Cancer Hospital’s location, in Barretos’s city at the State of São Paulo.