Overall NBCSP outcomes from 2006 to 2025

The Population Based Screening Framework (Standing Committee on Screening 2018) uses 5 incremental stages to describe a population screening pathway. The performance indicator data in this monitoring report have been applied to these stages (Figure 1), and this shows how the indicators relate to the framework over the timeframe of the NBCSP to date (2006 to 2025).

Figure 1: Summary of NBCSP performance indicators between August 2006 and June 2025


This flowchart depicts the 5 stages of the population-based screening framework (recruitment, screening, assessment, diagnosis and [assessment] outcomes), and includes the overall results for each using all data from the start of the program in August 2006 until June 2025 in this report. In that time, 34.7 million invitations had been sent and about 5.4 million people had participated a total of 14.3 million times. About 936,205 positive screens and about 712,327 diagnostic assessments were recorded. The median time between a positive screening test and diagnostic assessment was 57 days. From the diagnostic assessments with outcome data available, 17,378 confirmed cancers, 7,206 suspected cancers and 77,847 adenomas had been recorded. However, diagnostic assessment details are known to be under-reported.


  1. Based on the 14,045,834 participants who returned a valid iFOBT.
  2. Information on colonoscopies known through MBS claim only prior to 2018 is not included; PI 3 and PI 4 may be under-reported. Count also includes colonoscopies, from 2021 onwards, that were notified through PFUF data.
  3. Based on available outcome data. Excludes 333,827 assessments with no record of outcome.
  4. Includes improved data from notifiable bowel cancer diagnoses (Australian Cancer Database), to 2021 only.

Notes:

  1. PI 1: ‘people participated’ counts the people who participated over the time the NBCSP has been operating. It is not a unique count of people, and people who participated multiple times over several years were counted more than once. ‘Unique people participated’ counts each unique person who has participated in the program at least once.
  2. Assessment and diagnosis (PIs 3–9) rely on information being reported to the NCSR. As return of NBCSP forms is required (ACSQHC 2020) but not mandated by the NBCSP, there may be incomplete form return and incomplete data. See Current reporting limitations for more details.
  3. PI 5a (adenoma detection rate), PI 5b (PPV of diagnostic assessment for detecting adenoma), and PI 8 (cancer clinico-pathological stage distribution) are not reported due to data incompleteness or unavailability. See Current reporting limitations for more details.

Source: AIHW analysis of NCSR as at 31 December 2025 (NCSR RDE 6/02/2026).


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