Stool DNA test accurate in screening for colorectal cancer in Alaska Native people

Maybe their high rate of colorectal cancer is due to their diet, which is very high in meat & fat.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-10/mc-sdt103015.php

Public Release: 30-Oct-2015
Stool DNA test accurate in screening for colorectal cancer in Alaska Native people
Alaska Native people have twice the rates of colorectal cancer as rest of US
Mayo Clinic

Cologuard stool DNA testing for colorectal cancer was found to be an accurate noninvasive screening option for Alaska Native people, a population with one of world's highest rates of colorectal cancer, concluded researchers from the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and Mayo Clinic.

The remote residence of many Alaska Native people in sparsely distributed communities across vast roadless regions creates a barrier to screening with conventional tools, such as a colonoscopy. Stool DNA testing, which was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), may offer a workable and effective screening method for this population. The research was published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings and funded by a competitive grant from the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation.

The stool DNA test is a noninvasive screening tool that identifies characteristic chemical changes in stool that signal the presence of cancer or precancerous polyps. The test, which requires no bowel preparation and no diet or medication restrictions, can be done from home via a mailed sampling kit.

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The stool DNA test detected significantly more screen-relevant neoplasms than did the fecal immunochemical test. The stool DNA test detected 100 percent (10/10) of colorectal cancers. Stool DNA test sensitivity for precancerous polyps increased significantly in proportion to polyp size and the related risk of progression to cancer. Detection was 80 percent for the largest polyp group (those 3 centimeters or larger). For the important subset of patients with the sessile serrated polyp type, which accounts for approximately one-third of all cancers and is typically located on the far side of the colon, differences between stool detection rates were striking, say researchers. Stool DNA testing detected 67 percent of these polyps larger than 1 centimeter, compared to just 11 percent by fecal occult blood testing.

"The high detection rates of cancer and large polyps by stool DNA that we found in the Alaska Native population are remarkably similar to those demonstrated in the multicenter 10,000 patient screening study of the general U.S. population reported in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2014," says Dr. Ahlquist.

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