Context

Eligibility for colorectal cancer screening programmes is usually age-based from 50 to 74 years; the sector of the population in which most disease occurs and, on average, the sector standing to gain most from prevention/early detection. However, given colorectal cancer risk is affected by many factors, a wide spectrum of colorectal cancer risk exists meaning that many within this age range will be at low risk (therefore over screened) and many outside this age range will be at high risk (therefore under screened). What if precision public health approaches were possible where the age cut-offs were substituted by risk or cost-effectiveness thresholds and personalised colorectal cancer risk was calculated taking into account a range of …