Episode 329: 327. A Cell-free DNA Blood-Based Test for Colorectal Cancer Screening "SHIELD TESTING"

ening, the offer of a blood-based screening test boosted CRC screening by 17.5 percentage points over usual care.

That is because

CRC screening proportions were 17.5 percentage points higher in the blood test group versus usual care (30.5% vs 13.0%; OR 2.94, 95% CI 2.34 to 3.70; p<0.001).

So more people are screened for colon cancer but who cares if they get screened if your screening test does a terrible job of telling me stage 1 or precancer lesions. A history and physical will tell you stage 3 and 4 and a lot of the time even stage 2. Blood, change in size, or frequency.

Take away bottom line is---

This sounds cool. This sound awesome. This sounds like it would be great for pateints that don’t want to do other forms of coloncancer screening which I do talk about on episode 237. HOWEVER for me this is a no go, the reason I want to screen is to catch cancer early. That is one of the pillars of cancer screening. To catch it early and have something you can do with the results that will change the outcome. This does a terrible job of catching it early and if anything may give your patient a false hope or false sense of security. I understand the sex appeal of this test but this should not be used or recommended for your patients