Test for Colon Cancer Called ‘Pretty Worthless’

A common screening test failed to detect potentially cancerous colon growths 95% of the time, falsely reassuring patients and doctors, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Researchers found that the digital, in-office test on stool samples was not as reliable as a six-sample test given to patients to do on their own at home -- although even that test detected potentially cancerous growths less than 24% of the time.

“What we found is that it was pretty worthless,” Dr. David Lieberman, one of the study’s authors, said in Philadelphia of the in-office test. “It’s a wake-up call that we shouldn’t be relying on this test.”