Interventions to Improve Colorectal Cancer Screening

April 28, 2015 updated by: US Department of Veterans Affairs

Interventions to Improve Colorectal Cancer Screening Rates and Adherence

We will evaluate if we can increase colorectal cancer screening rates by directly sending screening tests to patients rather than waiting for them to come to clinic visits. We are also evaluating a new test--fecal immunochemical tests--which does not require patients to make dietary or medication changes. We will see if patients are more likely to complete these tests than the standard fecal occult blood tests.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Background: Colorectal cancer causes a substantial burden of suffering in the elderly VA population. Although colorectal cancer screening can reduce both the incidence and mortality from colorectal cancer, screening rates are low for the New Mexico VA Health Care System.

Objectives: We propose to use the electronic medical record and a new technology for fecal stool testing to improve screening rates and adherence to screening.

Methods: The electronic medical record will be used to identify patients who are eligible for screening but who do not have an immediately upcoming primary care clinic appointment. We will enroll a randomly-selected sample of 800 of these patients who have agreed to participate in the study and mail them stool tests along with instructions and educational information about the benefits of screening. We will compare the proportion of subjects who undergo colorectal cancer screening during the 3-month study period against a randomly-selected sample of 400 eligible patients who will require a clinic visit to initiate screening. Because adherence for fecal occult blood tests is low, we also propose to evaluate a new screening technology--fecal immunochemical stool tests which target intact human hemoglobin. These tests can be performed without requiring patients to follow onerous dietary and medication restrictions. We will evaluate whether screening adherence (proportion completing testing) is higher with fecal immunochemical testing (n = 400) compared to the standard fecal occult blood test (n=400). We will also evaluate the yield of advanced neoplasia for each of the screening tests.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

404

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • New Mexico
      • Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, 87108-5153
        • New Mexico VA Health Care System, Albuquerque, NM

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

46 years to 76 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Eligible for stool-based colorectal cancer screening, followed in primary care clinic

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Need for surveillance or screening colonoscopy
  • limited life expectancy

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Screening
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Arm 1: Fecal Immunochemical Tests
Mailed fecal immunochemical tests
Other: Mailed fecal immunochemical tests
Stool blood test
Experimental: Arm 2: Fecal Occult Blood Tests
Mailed fecal occult blood tests
Other: Mailed fecal occult blood tests
Stool blood test

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Colorectal Cancer Screening
Time Frame: 3 months
Completing fecal blood test within 90 days of enrolling
3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

US Department of Veterans Affairs

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Richard M Hoffman, MD, New Mexico VA Health Care System, Albuquerque, NM

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

June 1, 2008

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2009

Study Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 3, 2008

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 5, 2008

First Posted (Estimate)

June 6, 2008

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

May 13, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 28, 2015

Last Verified

April 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • SHP 08-177

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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