Scientists pinpoint way to check if you’re going to get early-onset colon cancer with up to 92% accuracy
A little-known at-home test can detect early-onset colon cancer before symptoms develop, increasing the chance of surviving a disease that is surging among young people.
The fecal immunochemical test (FIT) costs $49 and screens a person’s feces for flecks of blood, a warning sign of the cancer — as tumors cause bleeding.
The test is FDA-approved and allows younger people a chance to screen for colon cancer before they reach the recommended age for a colonoscopy, 45 years.
If blood is detected, a colonoscopy is performed, increasing the chances of catching colon cancer early when it is more treatable.
And the American College of Surgeons says it is generally accurate, able to detect about 80 percent of all cases. If someone opts for the $600 FIT with DNA screening, which checks for abnormal changes in cells’ DNA, accuracy rises to 92 percent.
A colonoscopy is about 99 percent accurate at detecting all cancers.
A recent study found people that use the FIT method between the ages of 40 to 49 years old are 39 percent less likely to die from colon cancer than their peers who wait to get the test until they are 50 years old or above.
An increasing number of younger people are seeking screening, as the US experiences a surge in colon cancer among people under 50, with young patients today about twice as likely to be diagnosed with the disease than their grandparents.
Pictured above is Christine Bronstein who was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 48 years after taking an at-home stool-based test for the disease. She said without the test, her cancer may have gone unnoticed
The rising rates are prompting some physicians to urge Americans to start getting screened for the disease before the age of 45 years, which is when US doctors recommend.
For the test, which can be ordered online, customers are sent a package containing a collection tube.
They are asked to collect a sample of their feces from the toilet bowl, place it in the tube and mail it to a lab.
Results take about five days to come back.
In the lab, scientists expose the feces to antibodies that can bind to human hemoglobin – a protein found in red blood cells.
If they bind to an area of the feces, a positive test result is issued – and patients are advised to undertake further screening.
In the FIT with DNA, scientists also analyze cells found in the stool for abnormal changes – which could indicate cancer.
Patients over 45 years old who have an average risk — meaning no family history of the disease — may be recommended the test, which is free for the group under health insurance plans.
But people can also buy the test, which is sold by labs like Everlywell for $49, or opt for other tests like Cologuard, which is priced at $121.
While the test can be extremely helpful, doctors caution that about five to 10 percent of patients who get a positive result do not have colon cancer or advanced polyps.
The number of false positives after a colonoscopy is below one percent.
It is important to follow up with a doctor to discuss results.
Doctors diagnosed her with stage three cancer following the test, and a two-inch tumor was found in her rectum. She underwent chemotherapy to shrink her tumor (shown above) before doctors said they would remove it
Shown above is a stock image of the FIT, which involves sending a sample of feces off to a lab
Patients undertaking the test are recommended to do it every year, as this can help to catch early-onset cancers which are typically slower growing.
Among patients to have their cancer caught after using an at-home stool-based test is Christine Bronstein, who was diagnosed with the cancer at age 48.
The Hawaii local exercises regularly, and avoids sugar and alcohol.
But after seeing blood in her stool in 2021, she became concerned and ordered a stool-based test.
After results came back positive, she rushed to see her doctor and was eventually approved for a colonoscopy – which led to a stage three colon cancer diagnosis with a two-inch tumor found in her rectum.
Bronstein told TODAY: ‘I’m very lucky that I did my test when I did. This thing really takes people down right in their prime… I think the problem why this is becoming the No.1 killer for younger people is because their symptoms get denied.’
Colon cancer cases are surging among under-50s in the US in an uptick that has stunned researchers, with adults born in the 1980s having double the risk of suffering from the cancer compared to their parents.
Among adults aged 25 to 29 years, colon cancer cancer rates have spiked 85 percent in two decades according to CDC data. At the same time, over the last 30 years cases have dropped among over-50s by 30 percent.
