Failure to Follow-Up After Colorectal Cancer Screening Translates into Preventable Deaths: Rachel Issaka, MD, MAS
ACP 2025: Issaka, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, told internists that three-quarters of CRC deaths can be attributed to 3 types of screening failure.
Rachel Issaka, MD, MAS, associate professor of medicine and the Kathryn Surace-Smith endowed chair in health equity research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center shared a striking statistic in her presentation on colorectal cancer screening at the 2025 ACP Internal Medicine Meeting in New Orleans: approximately 76% of cancer deaths are attributable to a failure in screening, whether a complete failure to screen, failure to screen at the appropriate interval, or failure to follow-up properly after screening.
Patient Care© spoke to Issaka after her presentation and asked which of 3 primary failures she feels is the most dangerous. She discusses that and also talks about the benefits and limitations of blood-based CRC detection tests now in development.
