(November 20, 2008 - Insidermedicine) A national screening program using an at-home kit to detect traces of blood in the feces is an adequate way to screen for colorectal cancer, according to research in the British Medical Journal.

Here is some information about the fecal occult blood test:

•    It is a test to detect trace amounts of blood in the stool.

•    Blood in the stool can be a sign of several conditions, including colorectal cancer.

•    The test involves placing a sample of stool on a specially-treated card. The test may be mailed to a lab for analysis or completed at home.

To test a national colorectal cancer screening program using fecal occult blood testing, researchers from the Finnish Cancer Registry assigned over 100,000 adults aged 60 to 64 to receive an in-home fecal occult blood test or to simply receive the usual health care available in that country.


Over 70% of those who received the fecal occult blood test completed it. The test was able to detect 55% of cancers that were present. Overall, the screening program was able to detect 37.5% of cancers that were present.

We had a chance to speak with Dr. Nea Malila, the principal investigator of this study, who offered some further insight.

This research demonstrates that, while it detects less than half of cancers, a national screening program using fecal occult blood testing is useful.

For Insidermedicine in Depth, I'm Dr. Susan Sharma.