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Available until now from your attending physician or by online order on a Health Insurance site, colorectal cancer screening kits will soon be distributed by pharmacists. “A way of strengthening the pharmacist’s role as local health adviser” believes Dr. Gérald Kierzek.
Included in the specifications for organized screening for this cancer, the distribution of screening kits for colorectal cancer to the patients concerned will soon be possible for pharmacists and conditional on the validation of training, organized by the regional centers for the coordination of cancer screening (CRCDC). The kits can be ordered by pharmacists on their Ameli professional space.
A major public health issue
Screening for colorectal cancer is an important public health issue. Indeed, this cancer is the second cancer in terms of mortality and third in terms of incidence in the French population. Screening concerns people aged 50 to 74, asymptomatic and without a history. They are invited to do so every two years.
What is colorectal cancer screening?
Free for the patient, screening consists of carrying out a search for blood in the stool. The sample is taken by the patient himself, at home. The sample will then be sent and analyzed in the laboratory, via an immunological test. The kit can be requested on the internet via the site monkit.depistage-colorectal.fr or sent by mail by the RCDCs.
What is the role of the pharmacist?
From now on, the pharmacist will be the third actor in this screening. He will have “mission is to give a screening kit to anyone aged 50 to 74 who comes to the pharmacy with or without an invitation, provided that they are eligible for organized screening, in particular that they have not carried out a test since two years, and that she is not at high or very high risk of developing colorectal cancer” indicates the site of the Council of the Order of Pharmacists.
An initiative hailed by Dr Gérald Kierzek, emergency doctor and medical director of Doctissimo: “Allowing pharmacists to deliver screening kits can only have a positive impact on this. Indeed, we know that the earlier cancer is detected, the greater the chances of curing it. In addition, as we have seen with the Covid crisis, the pharmacist is a local health professional who is accessible, this reinforces his role as health adviser”.
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Inform the patient and his doctor
In addition, a self-administered questionnaire must be offered by the pharmacist to the person to check their eligibility for screening and if they have not received an invitation letter, the pharmacist must ensure that they have not been listed as ineligible on the CRCDC server.
There are then two possibilities:
- In the event of ineligibility, the pharmacist directs the person to their attending physician or to the physician designated by the person;
- If eligible, the pharmacist is authorized to give the screening kit to the person.
He informs him of the interest and limits of this screening as well as the action to be taken in the event of a positive result. He also presents the procedures for using the kit and sending the vial containing the stool sample, and ensures that he understands. It explains to people without an invitation letter, the elements to be completed on the identification form appearing inside the kit: birth name, usual name, first name(s), NIR (number of registration in the INSEE directory) of the person concerned and date of sampling to be completed. He also ensures that the doctor receiving the results is identified on the form. Finally, the pharmacist must inform the attending physician or the physician designated by the person of the delivery of the kit.
Dr. Kierzek also specifies that groups of pharmacists, such as the Pharmactiv group, offer training kits for pharmacists and information on the issue for patients.