About a third of Americans aren't up to date on their colon cancer screening.
A new at-home test may help detect cancer in people who aren't willing or able to get a colonoscopy.
The FDA recently approved the Cologuard test, which can detect blood and eleven different molecular markers in the stool that can indicate cancer or precancerous lesions in the colon.
Dr. Danielle Marino, a gastroenterologist at UR Medicine, says a colonoscopy is still the gold standard. "So when we perform a colonoscopy, we can find precancerous lesions and take them out, so they'll never turn into cancer,” Marino said. “On the other hand, the Cologuard and the FIT test and other stool-based tests are really cancer detection tests. They find cancer once it has formed."
According to the National Cancer Institute, nearly 50,000 people die of colon cancer each year in this country.