The New England journal of medicine
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Fecal DNA versus fecal occult blood for colorectal-cancer screening in an average-risk population.
Although fecal occult-blood testing is the only available noninvasive screening method that reduces the risk of death from colorectal cancer, it has limited sensitivity. We compared an approach that identifies abnormal DNA in stool samples with the Hemoccult II fecal occult-blood test in average-risk, asymptomatic persons 50 years of age or older. ⋯ Although the majority of neoplastic lesions identified by colonoscopy were not detected by either noninvasive test, the multitarget analysis of fecal DNA detected a greater proportion of important colorectal neoplasia than did Hemoccult II without compromising specificity.