FIT may be as good as colonoscopy

DARK REPORT
https://www.darkdaily.com/regenstrief-institute-finds-fecal-immunochemical-test-may-be-as-effective-as-colonoscopy-at-detecting-colorectal-cancers/

July 2019

ANNALS INTERN MED
https://annals.org/aim/article-abstract/2726664/performance-characteristics-fecal-immunochemical-tests-colorectal-cancer-advanced-adenomatous-polyps?searchresult=1

5 March 2019  Imperiale et al.

https://annals.org/aim/article-abstract/2726665/why-what-you-may-know-about-fecal-immunochemical-testing-matters

Op Ed: Allison

Some U.S. primary care physicians and many of their patients may be unaware that fecal immunochemical tests (FITs) are noninvasive, easy to prepare, and inexpensive and have effectiveness similar to that of colonoscopy when used in a consistent, programmatic fashion to screen for colorectal cancer (CRC) (1). The paucity of studies comparing FITs and colonoscopy in 2000 may have been why Podolsky advocated for insurers to cover colonoscopic screening in all average-risk persons aged 50 years or older (2). Shortly thereafter, Congress ordered Medicare to cover the procedure without requiring published evidence of its superiority over less invasive and cheaper tests. 

In 2019, although trials are under way, we still lack published results of randomized controlled trials showing that colonoscopy is superior to FITs.

Currently, only about 65% of U.S. adults aged 50 to 75 years have been screened for CRC, and most of them have been screened with colonoscopy (3).