How much can you trust the fecal test to screen for colorectal cancer? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Fecal immunochemical tests, so called FIT tests, vary quite a bit at how accurate they are in pinpointing the presence of colorectal cancer, a recent study shows. Why aren’t such tests rated by the FDA for this capability? Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson explains.

Nelson: The FDA device clearance notion is not a patient benefit approval.  Does it do what they say it does and I think they probably do. I think although they emphasize the differences when you really look at positive predictive value and negative predictive value that's different from each other. It’s going to be far more informative to really consider how you use them in a practical way. If you're going to use one of these things on a yearly basis or something like that then negative predictive value will get higher. And can you use it in conjunction with colonoscopy maybe everyone gets a colonoscopy at some point and use this test to see who might need another one.   :33

Seems like most will need colonoscopy at least once. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.