Effective motivational intervention to increase the rate of screening for colorectal cancer precursor lesions, randomized clinical trial

The objective was to evaluate an intervention to increase the screening rate for colorectal cancer precursor lesions in close relatives of patients operated for CRC. Our methods were double blind randomized clinical trial between 2007 and 2008. All patients who had undergone surgery for CRC in the Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires (HIBA) were offered to suggest a significant other (family or friend) to be invited to perform CRC screening (n=113). People of the intervention group were invited to attend a meeting that included information on the nature and course of the CRC and strategies to find precursor lesions (or incipient stages) of CRC. As results we found that compared to the "control" group, screening rates were higher in individuals assigned to the motivational intervention (22 % vs.40 %, p < 0.04).We concluded that a motivational intervention was effective to increase the rate of CRC cancer precursor lesions screening in relatives of people with recent CRC surgery. Key words: colorectal cancer screening, motivational intervention, randomized clinical trial, efficacy, secondary prevention.