The key facts

  • After age 40, regular bowel cancer screening is recommended, including a fecal occult blood test
  • The immunochemical test usually requires no preparation, unlike versions with a special diet
  • A negative result does not guarantee the absence of disease: the test is advised to be repeated every one to two years

Regular screening after age 40

After age 40, it is worth getting regularly screened for bowel cancer; one method is a fecal occult blood test. NEWS.ru was told this by Olga Malinovskaya, head of the medical department of the KDL Medscan laboratory network.

How the test works and what the results mean

According to Malinovskaya, there are different versions of this test: for some, a special diet must be followed for several days. The immunochemical test, which is becoming increasingly widespread, usually requires no preparation and can detect hemoglobin and sometimes transferrin.

Why the test should be repeated

The doctor emphasized that a negative result does not always rule out the disease: bleeding from a polyp or an early-stage tumor may occur from time to time, and a particular sample may contain no blood. Therefore, screening is recommended to be repeated regularly — once every one to two years after age 40. A positive result, in turn, does not by itself mean cancer is present: blood in the stool can also appear with inflammatory bowel diseases.

Context

Earlier, according to Gazeta.Ru, it was reported that the bowel 'warns' of disease 10 years before diagnosis — the new recommendation of regular testing after age 40 is consistent with the idea of detecting problems long before obvious symptoms appear.