By Nancy Lapid
May 27 (Reuters) – People who skip colorectal cancer screening because colonoscopy or stool testing seems too burdensome now have a blood test option from Guardant Health among recommendations by the American Cancer Society for detecting the disease, the medical group said on Wednesday.
Guardant’s Shield test was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2024. It detects genetic material from the tumor that’s circulating in the blood.
The addition of Guardant’s Shield blood test as a means of finding colorectal cancer “reflects advances in disease detection and a critical shift in public health strategy to expand screening options and lower barriers to access,” the ACS said in updated guidelines published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
“We need to increase our emphasis on colorectal cancer as a highly preventable disease as much as a treatable one,” Dr. Robert Smith, ACS vice president and senior author of the updated guideline, said in a statement.
Colonoscopy, which allows doctors to visually examine the colon and rectum, remains the gold standard for colorectal cancer screening, the ACS said.
At-home stool tests recommended in the updated guideline include an updated version of Exact Sciences’ Cologuard and the new Colosense test developed by Geneoscopy, both of which look for hidden blood and molecular markers of cancer.
Stool tests detect colorectal cancer with high sensitivity and advanced precancerous lesions with moderate sensitivity, the ACS said.
The blood test is highly accurate at detecting advanced cancers but less sensitive than the stool tests at detecting precancerous lesions and early cancers. It is therefore recommended only for individuals who decline or do not complete the preferred screening tests, the ACS said.
Still, the society has long maintained that the most effective screening test is the one the patient completes.
Stool and blood tests must be done at more frequent intervals than colonoscopy, and positive results require prompt follow-up with colonoscopy to complete the screening process, the ACS also said.
The guideline reaffirms the recommendation that average-risk adults should initiate colorectal screening at age 45 and continue through age 75 for those with a life expectancy greater than 10 years.
One in three eligible Americans remain unscreened for colorectal cancer and most of those who die from the disease had not been screened for it, Guardant said in a statement.
By including a blood-test option, “the new guidelines create another opportunity to reach patients who might otherwise go unscreened,” Guardant said.
The stool and blood tests are not recommended for people deemed to be at high-risk for the disease.
(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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