According to a recent study published in The Lancet Oncology, a new screening test developed in the Netherlands may improve the accuracy of bowel cancer screening.
Researchers from the Netherlands have developed a test that they believe is more effective at detecting larger polyps than currently available stool tests.
“We want to be able to detect the tumours before they have become invasive, that is at the stage of larger premalignant polyps. Treating physicians then can remove these polyps during a colonoscopy, rather than by surgery,” says Gerrit Meijer, principal investigator at the Netherlands Cancer Institute and co-author of the research.
Faecal immunochemical tests (FIT) work by detecting the presence of haemoglobin – a protein found in blood – in stool. They are a type of stool test that many countries, including Australia, use in bowel cancer screening programs.
The study researchers say their stool test is more effective than the FIT at detecting precursors to bowel cancer, such as polyps.
The test was named the multitarget FIT (mtFIT), as it detects haemoglobin and two other proteins – calprotectin and serpin family F member 2.
The study compared the efficacy of the mtFIT vs. the regular FIT by examining 13,187 stool samples. The mtFIT detected abnormalities in 299 people while the regular FIT detected abnormalities in 159 people.
“The new test detects more larger polyps without a significant increase in ‘false-positive’ results and thus unnecessary colonoscopies,” says Meijer.
