gms | German Medical Science

Background: With more than 1 million new cases and about 530,000 deaths per year, colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common fatal malignancy in the world. Due to its slowly development from curable precancerous lesions, a large proportion of CRC cases and CRC deaths may be prevented through the use of screening tests. However compliance with current screening recommendations is poor.

The success of a particular screening strategy strongly depends on the performance characteristics, but also on practicability and acceptability of the screening method. As stool-tests are non-invasive and require no cathartic bowel preparation or medication, they meet crucial criteria of acceptable and safe screening methods.

Methods: Starting in January 2006, we set up a study (BliTz, “Begleitende Evaluierung innovativer Testverfahren zur Darmkrebs-Früherkennung) in the Rhine-Neckar region to assess the ability of novel stool tests to predict abnormal colonoscopic findings in a large sample of asymptomatic people undergoing screening colonoscopy. Participants are recruited through a network of 20 gastroenterological practices. Stool and blood samples are collected from participants prior to preparation for colonoscopy. Furthermore patients are asked to fill out a standardized questionnaire, and colonoscopy and histology reports are collected.

First Results and Outlook: By March 2007, 1390 screening participants have been recruited. As a first step, comparative evaluation of 6 different immunological tests for blood in stool is currently ongoing. By this presentation, we would like to present preliminary results of this evaluation (available in August 2007) and like to inform the scientific community about this new study, which is still open for collaboration.