 People showing signs of bowel cancer could soon be offered a £5 at-home "poo test" to avoid having to undergo invasive investigations. Bowel cancer symptoms primarily include changes in bowel habits, blood in stool, abdominal pain, bloating, weight loss, and fatigue. Traditionally, if these symptoms were reported to a GP, the patient would be referred for further tests at a hospital, most notably a colonoscopy - an invasive procedure that examines the interior of a person's bowels. However, new draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) is now advising GPs to offer patients a self-administered test at home. This test, known as the faecal immunochemical test (FIT), requires the patient to provide a small stool sample which is then sent to a laboratory for analysis. The lab checks the sample for any trace amounts of blood in the stool, with results typically available within a week. If a certain amount of blood is detected, GPs should then refer their patients for additional tests such as a colonoscopy or CT colonography, according to Nice. Currently, the FIT test is used in the NHS bowel cancer screening programme, which screens adults without symptoms for bowel cancer. Nice believes that offering all patients a FIT test before a colonoscopy will reduce the number of people referred for a colonoscopy, which should see a fall in waiting times. Tests for colorectal cancer, costing between £4 and £5 per sample, can accurately identify the disease in approximately nine out of 10 people. The new guidelines also allow GPs to refer patients for colonoscopy without a positive FIT result "if they think it is necessary and where symptoms persist". This move, according to Nice, could potentially halve the number of people referred for urgent colonoscopies.){kind=link}
A ‘poo test’ can accurately detect the disease in approximately nine out of 10 people, according to new draft guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice)
People showing signs of bowel cancer could soon be offered a £5 at-home “poo test” to avoid having to undergo invasive investigations.
Bowel cancer symptoms primarily include changes in bowel habits, blood in stool, abdominal pain, bloating, weight loss, and fatigue. Traditionally, if these symptoms were reported to a GP, the patient would be referred for further tests at a hospital, most notably a colonoscopy – an invasive procedure that examines the interior of a person’s bowels.
However, new draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) is now advising GPs to offer patients a self-administered test at home. This test, known as the faecal immunochemical test (FIT), requires the patient to provide a small stool sample which is then sent to a laboratory for analysis.
The lab checks the sample for any trace amounts of blood in the stool, with results typically available within a week. If a certain amount of blood is detected, GPs should then refer their patients for additional tests such as a colonoscopy or CT colonography, according to Nice.