Comparison of trends in colorectal cancer screening in the US end-stage renal disease population and the US Medicare population

Background: Although patients treated with maintenance hemodialysis are at an increased risk of colorectal cancer compared with the general population, national practices for colorectal cancer screening have not been reported in this population. We assessed the performance of colorectal cancer screening in the US end-stage renal disease program in comparison with the US Medicare population.

Methods: We studied the United States Renal Data System for US prevalent hemodialysis patients between 2002 and 2011 who had Medicare as their primary insurer. We assessed procedure codes for performance of common colorectal cancer screening tests, including fecal occult blood testing, sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy. We assessed screening sigmoidoscopy and screening colonoscopy only and excluded patients who had preexisting colon cancer or gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Because colorectal cancer screening recommendations are established for hemodialysis patients who have been listed for kidney transplantation, but no general recommendations exist for patients who are not wait-listed, we assessed colorectal cancer screening separately for the two groups.

Results: We found that 1-year performance of colonoscopy in wait-listed hemodialysis patients was similar to or higher than that in general Medicare patients of the same age, while performance of colonoscopy in non-wait-listed patients was significantly lower than among general Medicare patients of the same age.

Conclusions: Given improved survival among hemodialysis patients in the last decade, the utility of colorectal cancer screening even among non-wait-listed hemodialysis patients should be reassessed.