Long-awaited new immunoassays for screening of colorectal cancer will finally be able to be used in France. They had already obtained the green light from the Haute Autorité de Santé in 2008 and the National Cancer Institute had looked into their implementation in 2011. They will be available from March 2015, and put to the test during the program. organized screening for colon cancer.
“The purchase procedure necessary for the implementation of the immunological test for the detection of occult blood in the stool has just been completed” explain the health authorities in a press release. “It will be gradually distributed to the 17 million people aged 50 to 74 affected by the national screening program, by their attending physician.”
Today, colorectal cancer screening is offered free of charge every two years to men and women aged 50 to 74. The prospecting is based on searches for blood in the stool by a colorimetric test (Hemoccult®).
The new method has the advantage of being more precise and simpler since a single stool sample will be sufficient to establish a diagnosis (compared to six currently). “This simplification should make it possible to broaden the participation of the French in screening tests, which today remains insufficient (32%)”, explains the Ministry of Health. It will detect between 2 and 2.5 times more colorectal cancers, as well as three to four times more advanced adenomas (benign tumors). This provision was eagerly awaited by the League against cancer because early detection is at the heart of the fight against colon cancer.
Early detection to save lives
If colorectal cancer is detected at an early stage, the 5-year survival rate after diagnosis exceeds 90%.
Colorectal cancer is the second most deadly cancer of all sexes, behind lung cancer. And with 42,152 new cases estimated in 2012 in France, 55% of which in men, it is the third most common cancer after prostate cancer (56,841 new cases) and breast cancer (48,763) .
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