An independent multi-centre, study investigated the sensitivity and specificity of three other stool tests [8] . A total of 566 patients used an occult blood test as well as the M2-PK test (dimeric form of the enzyme pyruvate kinase) and ColoAlert®. These three non-invasive stool tests were also compared to the existing gold standard, the colonoscopy. The occult blood test scored with a very good specificity of 97%, but its sensitivity was by far the lowest. In the case of the M2-PK test, the opposite was true. Although the combination of both tests increased the sensitivity to 92%, it remained very unspecific at 59%. ColoAlert® achieved the most accurate predictive value of non-invasive methods in this study: in addition to a high sensitivity of 85%, the minimum specificity of 90% for the detection of colorectal cancer recommended by the oncology guideline easily could be exceeded. Several other clinical studies have also shown the great benefits of genetic diagnostics in colorectal cancer screening even in asymptomatic patients 9 [9] . These serve as further proof of the high clinical significance of blood tests such as ColoAlert®, which are based on a combination of the evidence of tumour DNA, occult blood and hDNA.
top of page
bottom of page
Comments