The Wunder Project

Sharing this week’s WunderGlo Medical Monday💙

This The WunderGlo Foundation shares a study which discusses that you can now screen for colorectal cancer with a blood test - but should you?

For years, the tools available to screen for colorectal cancer were colonoscopies and stool tests. That changed in August, when a new FDA-approved blood test to detect colorectal cancer became available at doctor’s offices.

Of the screening options, colonoscopies are perhaps the most well-known—and most dreaded. They involve taking a laxative beforehand to empty the bowels and then a procedure in which a doctor inserts a long, thin tube equipped with a camera into the re**um. If no cancer or advanced precancerous lesions called polyps are found, most people can wait 10 years to get another one.

The Shield blood test, manufactured by Guardant Health, is the latest screening tool to hit the market. It’s meant for people over age 45 at average risk for colorectal cancer. Like the blood test developed by biotechnology manufacturer Freenome, which is seeking FDA approval, it works by detecting circulating DNA that may come from cancers.

A study conducted last year that included nearly 8,000 participants found the Shield test was 83% successful at detecting CRC in an average-risk screening population and 13% successful at detecting polyps.

The new Stanford research found that colonoscopies and, to a lesser extent, stool tests are vastly more effective than the Shield blood test.

To reach this conclusion, researchers used a computerized modeling study to project the number of CRC cases and deaths expected if people used each screening strategy—blood tests, stool-based tests, and colonoscopy—over the long term, explained Uri Ladabaum, MD, lead study author and a professor of gastroenterology at Stanford Medicine.

The team’s projections showed that of 100,000 people who might receive a colonoscopy every decade, 1,543 would develop colorectal cancer, and 672 would die from the disease. Those figures rose for stool-based tests, with researchers finding 2,181 to 2,498 cases per 100,000 people and 904 to 1,025 deaths.

Of the three screening methods, however, rates were highest for people using the blood tests. Under that projection, cases of CRC would range from 4,310 to 4,365, and deaths would rise to 1,604 and 1,679, roughly two and a half times as many deaths as in the colonoscopy group. Blood tests, which can be pricey and aren’t always covered by insurance, were also less cost-effective than other methods, the researchers found.

But blood tests still reduced cases and deaths compared to no screening at all: Under that scenario, researchers found that 7,470 people would develop the cancer and 3,624 would die from it.

The research confirms what’s already well-established: Colonoscopy is the gold standard of CRC screening. But, as the authors noted, it also sheds light on how the newly developed blood tests stack up against it.

“The main conclusion is that the first generation of blood tests can provide substantial benefits at acceptable costs compared with no screening,” Ladabaum said. “But that the currently available stool tests and screening colonoscopy are much more effective and cost-effective.”

To read the full article click here: https://www.health.com/blood-test-colorectal-cancer-screening-8738402

The Gloria Borges WunderGlo Foundation wishes all of the wonderful Dads and "Father figures", both past and present, in your lives a very Happy Father's Day!

"....And now, today is Father’s Day. I am beyond grateful to have such a great dad who always has my back, is always there to rub my back, and is always game for acting silly and crazy (which I do quite often)."

"...When you’re surrounded with love and support like I am, every day is a beautiful day."

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! Keep being awesome, dudes." - Gloria Borges - aka: WunderGlo on June 16, 2013

Sincerely from WunderGlo, from our hearts to yours, Have a wonderful day and "keep being awesome dudes". ❤️