The latest automated testing system and sample collection device makes faecal sampling easy and convenient for patients, provides timely diagnosis of significant bowel disease, and ensures consistency for the laboratory.
At the ACB Focus meeting in April 2016, Alpha Laboratories organised a panel of experts to discuss the ramifications of the new National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) NG12 Guideline – Suspected cancer: recognition and referral, in relation to bowel cancer.
Professor Callum Fraser (Senior Research Fellow, School of Medicine, University of Dundee) opened the discussion with a reminder that over 26,000 people die of bowel cancer annually, making it the second most common cause of cancer deaths today. And, with over 40,000 diagnosed each year, it remains a major clinical problem.
Until 2015, NICE advised that patients with abdominal symptoms and pain should only have abdominal and rectal examinations and a full blood count. In addition, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network stated that faecal occult blood testing is too insensitive to be used in guiding investigations of symptomatic patients. Of course, at that time, these recommendations concerned the traditional low-sensitivity guaiac-based faecal occult blood (FOB) test.
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