Colon cancer test from ‘Exact Sciences’ detects more tumors
A study has found that Exact Sciences Corp (EXAS) and the Mayo Clinic’s novel colon cancer test, that uses DNA of specimens collected at the patients home, detects more tumors, than methods that focus on looking for blood in the stool as reported in Bloomberg.
New England Journal of Medicine release the research which shows that the test is as powerful as a regular colonoscopy. Colon cancer is the third most common cancer and is preventable, if detected in the early-stage.
The ‘Colongaurd’ test simply scaned the patients' stool sample for traces of tumor DNA, blood and genetic mutations. The cancers detected in the test were significantly more that other tests that only rely on detecting blood in the stool. About 13 % of false positives occurred in more patients, but after undergoing a colonoscopy, that showed no signs of cancer in them.
This noninvasive test may appeal to people because of its high sensitivity for the curable stage of cancer. The Exact Sciences product finds 1 in 166 people tested, while the older stool tests find 1 in 208 people as reported in Bloomberg.
The research and development of this DNA-based stool-screening method to detect cancer has come a long way.