A blood test to screen for colon cancer may be on the horizon
The first blood test to screen for colorectal cancer could be approved this year — raising the potential to drastically increase the number of people diagnosed.
The first blood test to screen for colorectal cancer could be approved this year — raising the potential to drastically increase the number of people diagnosed with the second-highest cause of cancer death in the United States.
The test would not replace the gold-standard colonoscopy, experts said, but could boost the dismal rate of colorectal screenings with a less invasive and perhaps more palatable way to detect colon cancer.
Colonoscopies and “stool-based tests have that kind of ‘ick’ factor related to them,” said Dr. William Grady, a gastroenterologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. “We need to find tests that people are going to use.”
Guardant Health's Blood Collection Kit.Guardant HealthGrady led the new research published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine that found that a blood test called Shield from California-based Guardant Health was, overall, 83% effective in finding colorectal cancers.
That’s significant, said outside experts.
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