Healthier Together: Game changer in the fight against colon cancer

SEATTLE — Soon there could be a blood test to screen for colon cancer, and that could help people get tested without a colonoscopy or at-home stool test.

Fred Hutch Cancer Center helped develop the breakthrough test, and KIRO 7′s Ranji Sinha explains why it could be a game changer in the fight against colon cancer in this week’s Healthier Together.

“It should really open up screening,” says Natalie Phelps who admits that colon cancer never crossed her mind in her 30s as a disease that could impact her.

“I wasn’t aware when I got colorectal cancer, I just thought I must be a very and unlucky 38-year-old! What I’ve come to realize is this is a growing trend,” she said.

Phelps ended up being diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.

“If I had known there was a blood test, that could have been a conversation that I had with my Primary Care doctor. It would also have helped me get screened much sooner. It took me five months to get diagnosed because everyone kept thinking I was too young to have colon cancer,” she said.

She’s now a cancer survivor.

A blood test is arriving too late to help her, but she’s hoping it’s not too late for many others.

The test -- which Fred Hutch helped develop -- has shown 83% accuracy for detecting colorectal cancer.

Dr. Rachel Issaka is an Associate Professor with Fred Hutch and also the director of Hutch’s Colon Cancer Screening Program. She says we will have to wait on the test, but the hope is that it’s not a very long wait.

“It’s not commercially available yet, but earlier this year there was a blood test for colon cancer screening whose results were reported and it met the threshold for approval by the FDA,” Dr. Issaka said.

Dr. Issaka says it’s a massive breakthrough and the test could help more people screen sooner.

Right now, colonoscopies and at-home stool tests like Cologuard are the main options, but even doctors admit that those can be complicated.

Dr. Issaka hopes the medical approval levers clear the test for general use.

“The FDA did approve it at the end of July, and we’re waiting for CMS, which is a governing body that says what insurance bodies will cover—we’re waiting for them to write a rule that insurance companies will cover that test,” Dr. Issaka said.

Fred Hutch says the study, named the ECLIPSE study, surveyed nearly 8,000 people ages 45 to 84 and found 83.1% tested positive for certain markers in the blood for colon cancer and had that positive test confirmed with a colonoscopy.

Only 16.9% had a negative blood test for colon cancer but went on to find it through a colonoscopy.

The blood test is not mistake-free, but it has a high percentage success rate and works well in finding early-stage cancers.

A colonoscopy is still considered the gold standard for colon cancer detection, but lowering the age for screening to 45 and awareness that the cancer is impacting more young people is creating longer waits for people who may want to screen now.

The American Cancer Society lists colorectal cancer as the second most common cause of cancer deaths in adults in the U.S.

Dr. Issaka knows that the implications of having a simple blood test are huge as more young people consider screening.

“We are very excited for the potential of this blood test,” she said.

Phelps’ own story with colon cancer is one that she shares regularly, especially because she knows others might be taken by surprise by the disease.

“I don’t have a history of colon cancer in my family. This completely blindsided me,” Phelps said.

This weekend Phelps will take part in the 2024 Walk to End Colon Cancer this Saturday, October 5, at Gasworks Park to bring awareness to colon cancer.

She wants younger people with any connections to colon cancer to consider screening sooner.

“Yes, I very much wish I had been screened earlier and with the simple blood test, it can be something that would be part of your annual physical. I have run into people that think a colonoscopy is the only way to get screened for colon cancer, but there is, in fact, several options,” Phelps said.

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