What are the types of screening for colorectal cancer? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Colonoscopy is considered by many to be the gold standard for screening for colorectal cancer. Kathy Bull Henry, a colorectal cancer expert at Johns Hopkins, says there are other considerations.

Bull Henry: Screening tests have to be acceptable. I think there has been a lot of emphasis on colonoscopy. But there are other screening tests that are available. And the best test to be performed is the one the patient will do. The test also has to be of high quality, cost effective, and access has to be equitable.  :22

Stool screening test are also very good and improving all the time.

Bull Henry: The biggest problem is it is not detecting polyps. They’re a premalignant lesion, but if you’re doing this regularly the hope is you would be able to detect the CRC at an early stage.  :13

At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.