Meet Cologuard: the Colon Cancer Test You Can Take at Home

Meet Cologuard: the Colon Cancer Test You Can Take at Home 

WNO-HEALTH-Numerous years prior, Dan Meaney erroneously told his specialist that his mom had kicked the bucket of colon growth. Actually, she had passed on of uterine disease, yet the mix-up drove Meaney to experience a compulsory sigmoidoscopy, a negligibly obtrusive medicinal examination of the internal organ. Meaney, now 73 years of age, was just 38 at the time, and says the experience was gruesome to the point that he promised never to have an alternate screening test for colorectal growth again, notwithstanding suggestions that all grown-ups ages 50 and up have a colonoscopy like clockwork.

At that point, a couple of months back, Meaney was viewing "Screech Box," a morning news and syndicated program, when he found out about Cologuard, an at-home, stool-based test for colorectal tumor, which the Food and Drug Administration affirmed last August. The protection agent at his working environment touted Cologuard as well, so Meaney chose to approach his essential look after a solution to request it.

A few weeks in the wake of taking the $500 test, which Medicare and Meaney's protection totally secured, Meaney got a positive result. His specialist alluded him for a colonoscopy, which luckily just uncovered four kindhearted polyps. "The Cologuard provided for me the evidence that I expected to have a colonoscopy," Meaney says. "Anybody I've conversed with about getting a colonoscopy is happy to catch wind of the Cologuard."

An Easier Test 

To be sure, specialists say a real advantage of Cologuard is its usability: It exhibits an option to colonoscopy that doesn't include the two-day fluid eating methodology numerous patients begrudgingly experience to prepare their insides for examination. Specialists guess that is mostly why propelling individuals to have colonoscopies has customarily been similar to getting individuals to go to the dental practitioner. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention evaluates that around 23 million individuals ages 50 to 75 are skipping colonoscopies.

Colon malignancy is the second driving reason for growth passings in the U.s., and cases the lives of 50,000 Americans every year. With screening, the malady is recognizable at right on time stages, and individuals diagnosed at stage I have a 93 to 95 percent survival rate - while those diagnosed at stage IV have just a 12 percent shot of survival.

As indicated by Eric Hargis, CEO of the support bunch Colorectal Cancer Alliance, Cologuard is "truly a chance to generally take out colon growth in America. The more at-danger Americans screened, the more we are going to spare."

Anyhow to achieve that objective, Hargis says there must be across the country purchase in from specialists, since they're the ones who must recommend the test. Hargis says just 40 percent of essential consideration doctors prescribe their patients get screened for colon disease through customary systems, refering to a study from the American Cancer Society. "That is simply a crime," Hargis says. "Absolutely patients frequently must be their own particular promoter." The trust is that Cologuard will be a sufficient distinct advantage to start moving that needle.

Deciding the Best Test for You 

Colorectal screening ought to start at age 50, unless the illness runs in your family or you have indications, for example, blood in your stool or polyps. "On the off chance that your specialist says you are excessively youthful for colon malignancy, or lets you know its simply hemorrhoids, push back," Hargis says.

Colonoscopies are prescribed consistently for at-danger individuals or those ages 50 and up, however in the event that you take the Cologuard test rather - suggested like clockwork for 50- to 85-year-olds at normal danger for colon malignancy - then you needn't bother with a colonoscopy unless Cologuard finds something suspicious. Medicare covers Cologuard at regular intervals, and critically, its the first test in history that the FDA and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services both affirmed on that day, to quicken accessibility to patients, says David Ahlquist, an educator of prescription and a gastroenterologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Ahlquist, who coinvented the test, says Cologuard is as exact as the colonoscopy in catching 94 percent of stage I and II colon diseases, and since the test is carried out more often than colonoscopy, it could have much higher general identification rates. The FDA refers to a study contrasting Cologuard with the fecal immunochemical test, or FIT, an option to colonoscopy patients can experience yearly to locate blood in the stool, a potential indication of disease. In the study, Cologuard got malignancies 92 percent of the time, thought about to FIT at 74 percent. Cologuard lives up to expectations by catching DNA changes normal for dangerous injuries or polyps, which are exhibit in the cells lining the colon, Ahlquist clarifies.

While Cologuard is similar or surprisingly better than colonoscopy at recognizing precancerous and dangerous injuries, it additionally has a higher rate of false positives than the FIT test. As per one study, Cologuard had a 10 percent false positive rate, analyzed to 5 percent with FIT. At the same time over the long run - since individuals experience Cologuard at regular intervals rather than consistently - Cologuard has less false positives than FIT.

An alternate playing point of Cologuard contrasted with both FIT and colonoscopy is that it recognizes sores on both the privilege and left half of colon with equivalent affectability, while FIT and colonoscopy distinguish generally injuries on the left side, Ahlquist says. However a few studies have demonstrated an increment of tumors on the right side, making new screening strategies vital.

"In the event that it were comprehensively connected over the populace and was utilized frequently inside a program, a test like this could do what PAP has accomplished for cervical disease, making it an uncommon ailment," Ahlquist says. Cervical malignancy used to be the No. 2 disease executioner in ladies, however since the time that ladies started getting consistent PAP screenings in the 1950s, rates of U.s. cervical growth have fallen significantly. "We're exceptionally energized by that potential situation."