A new blood test to detect colorectal cancer could give patients some important insight into the status of their health at low cost after receiving the Food and Drug Administration’s approval this week.
Produced by Guardant Health, the “Shield” test detected roughly 83% of colorectal cancers, with about a 10% false positive rate, according to Reuters. It works by detecting the DNA from cancerous tumors that show up in a person’s blood. Another non-invasive at-home test, Exact Sciences’ stool “Cologuard” test, was previously shown to find roughly 92.3% of colorectal cancers.
Neil Maniar, a Bouvé College of Health Sciences professor of public health practice, says the Shield test is an important step in determining whether a person should have a colonoscopy, a procedure considered the gold standard in diagnosing colorectal cancer.
