Study: Fecal Blood Tests May Cut Need for Followup Surveillance Colonoscopies

Researchers in Singapore report that immunological tests for blood or blood protein in the feces may reduce the need for followup surveillance colonoscopies for patients who have had surgery for colorectal cancer.

The researchers, reporting in the journal Colorectal Disease, said they studied 611 colorectal cancer patients who at the customary time for a followup colonscopic examination of the remaining colon had both an immunological fecal occult blood test (FOBT) and then a colonoscopy.

They said 59 of the patients were were categorized as FOBT-positive, and nine of these were subsequently proven to have recurrent or metachronous cancer while 12 patients had one, or more adenomatous polyps.

But for the remaining 552 FOBT-negative patients, no cancers were found -- meaning that the immunological FOBT approach was 100 percent sensitive for detecting a recurrence of cancer.

Routine use of the immunological FOBT "may be used to reduce the frequency of colonoscopic surveillance," the researchers concluded, "as a negative FOBT may be taken as a sign that colonoscopy may be deferred safely."

Other Sources: Colorectal Disease