Once is not enough for FOBT!

Fecal occult blood test (FOBT)  is an effective colorectal cancer screening method, but it needs to be repeated every one or two years to reduce the risk of dying from colon or rectal cancer.

But almost half of a group of insured patients initially screened with fecal occult blood testing didn’t follow-up with another FOBT within two years, as recommended. Read the rest of this entry »

What’s the best way to get large groups of people screened for colorectal cancer?

Surprisingly it may not be colonoscopy but fecal occult blood testing (FOBT).

A computer model has found annual home testing with a  fecal occult  blood test, either Hemoccult II® or Hemoccult SENSA®,  is more cost-effective than colonoscopy every 10 years to screen people of average risk for colorectal cancer.

The model compared the number of life years saved under several scenarios of costs and  compliance with annual testing and follow-up colonoscopies after positive guaiac tests.  For the same fixed budget, more people could be screened with an FOBT and more life years saved. Read the rest of this entry »

FOBT screening saves lives, but only when it is done right.

Three out of four primary care doctors did a fecal occult blood test once during an office visit, a method that is ineffective in finding cancer or preventing death from colorectal cancer. One out of four used the in-office test exclusively.

Less than half of doctors had a system in place to be sure that home tests were completed and returned.  Read the rest of this entry »

When people were offered a personal choice of either FOBT or colonoscopy screening by their primary care provider, more actually completed the test they chose than if only one option was offered.

In a study of  1,000 ethnically and racially diverse people, the lowest percentage had a colonoscopy when that was the only test offered.  More completed fecal occult blood testing if it was the single choice. Overall 65 percent of the 1,000 patients studied were screened after their doctor recommended testing. Read the rest of this entry »

The first priority of an expert panel looking at increasing the number of people being screened for colorectal cancer was to “Eliminate financial barriers to colorectal cancer screening and appropriate follow up.”

Meeting for two days in Washington in February, a National Institutes of Health State-of-the-Science conference considered what is known– and not known– about why people choose or avoid screening, how to improve screening quality, and what the healthcare capacity is to deliver colorectal cancer screening to the US population.

At the end of the meeting, the panel released a consensus statement with their recommendations for enhancing the use and quality of colorectal cancer screening. Read the rest of this entry »