Footnotes

• Contributors ET-Z and IL-V were responsible for study coordination. ET-Z, AK, MEvL and IL-V were responsible for the study design and writing the first version of the manuscript. ET-Z, AK, IL-V, MEvL, HJdK, MAE, VEL, ED and MCWS drafted the final manuscript. All authors gave critical revisions on intellectual content of the manuscript and approved the final manuscript.

• Funding ET-Z’s work is funded by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM).

• Disclaimer The funder had no role in the data collection, statistical analyses and interpretation of the results of writing the manuscript.

• Competing interests None declared.

• Ethics approval The data of this study originated from the Netherlands Cancer Registry. Data were supplied anonymously; therefore, ethical approval was not required.

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

• Data sharing statement The data of this study originated from the Netherlands Cancer Registry. The authors are not owner of the data, therefore no unpublished data are available.

• Collaborators LECO working group (National Monitoring and Evaluation of the Colorectal Cancer Screening Programme): EJ Kuipers, FJ van Kemenade, AJ van Vuuren, JMG Bonfrer, H van Veldhuizen, M van Ballegooijen, MGJ Thomeer, M Buskermolen, MF van Velthuysen and I Nagtegaal.

• Correction notice This article has been corrected since it published Online First. The collaborators statement has been added.