More than 40,000 new cases of colorectal cancer are diagnosed each year in France. This disease mainly affects men and women over the age of 50. Screening is still insufficient today. However, when the disease is diagnosed at an early stage the cure rate is 9 out of 10. This Wednesday, January 15, Health Insurance announced that it had entered into a new contract for the supply of colorectal cancer screening kits, which would ensure thus “a sustainable framework for the next five years.”
A risk of shortage in 2019
The National Health Insurance Fund (Cnam) said in a statement that the kits will be available “no later than May”. Cerba laboratory still supplies them, as in 2014 and 2018. Last year, legal proceedings raised concerns about a shortage. Indeed, the renewal of this market has been challenged by three discarded competitors. They won because the Paris administrative court ordered the market to be canceled in April 2019. A decision was subsequently confirmed in July.
Screening remains insufficient
Last March, on the occasion of “Blue March”, the month for the promotion of colorectal cancer screening, the Public Health agency France published the latest available data, for the period 2017-2018. Only 32.1% of men and women aged 50 to 74 have been screened. However, the participation rate was 33.5% for the 2016-2017 period. These figures remain well below European recommendations, which stand at 45%. “The increase in participation in the colorectal cancer screening program that was expected with the test change in the course of 2015, going from the guaiac test to the more sensitive and easier to perform immunological test, is not is therefore not materialized to date ”, regrets Public Health France.
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