New bowel cancer test could cut number of endoscopies

The new faecal immunochemical test (FIT), which will be rolled out in the UK over the next few years, will look for hidden blood in the stool, a possible early sign of bowel cancer.

The new test is much simpler and more accurate than the current faecal occult blood (FOB) test, and a study has found that it could reduce the number of patients being referred for endoscopies, which put a strain on NHS budgets, by almost a third.

Researchers in the Netherlands have studied the results of 810 patients, who had the FIT test before an endoscopy referral was made. 669 of these patients were found to have no serious bowel disease.  Once the results had been considered, 30 per cent of the patients could have been prevented from having an endoscopy.

Dr Sjoerd Elias, the study’s lead researcher, said “The amount of patients that are unnecessarily referred for an endoscopy strains health care budgets and exposes patients to a small but realistic risk from endoscopy associated complications.

“Our study found using a test called FIT, which detects the presence of haemoglobin in the patient’s faeces, alongside the usual diagnostic work done by GPs could rule out nearly a third of patients from requiring an endoscopy.”

The researchers did, however, stress that there was still a small risk that some cases of bowel cancer could be missed by using the FIT test, and said that careful monitoring would be needed for persistent symptoms, with the small risk of a delay in diagnosis for some patients.

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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