REVIEW ARTICLE - FECAL OCCULT BLOOD TESTING FOR COLORECTAL-CANCER

Major health organizations recommend colorectal cancer screening using faecal occult blood tests, sigmoidoscopy or both for patients 50 year s of age or older who are at average risk for colorectal cancer. Howev er, no specific recommendations have been made regarding choice of tes t from among the tests currently or soon to be available, Therefore, t o aid clinicians in rationally choosing a particular test for faecal o ccult blood, published data are reviewed regarding the performance cha racteristics, strengths and weaknesses of the various faecal occult bl ood tests. New studies suggest that immunochemical tests (e.g. HemeSel ect) or a combination of sensitive guaiac tests and immunochemical tes ts (e.g. Hemoccult Sensa and HemeSelect) are the most sensitive, speci fic tests for detecting colorectal carcinoma and colorectal polyps gre ater than or equal to 1 cm.