Effectiveness of Multi-target FIT-DNA Analysis as a Colorectal Cancer Screening Test

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancer in Hong Kong. In 2018, CRC accounted for 17.4%, 5,780 cases, of the total new cancers. CRC claimed 2,279 lives (15.8%) making it the second most deadly killer in the population.

Since 2010, the Cancer Expert Working Group (CEWG) has recommended that asymptomatic average-risk individuals aged 50 to 75 years should consider one of the screening methods: fecal occult blood test (FOBT) every one to two years; OR flexible sigmoidoscopy every 5 years; OR colonoscopy every 10 years. However, it poses great challenges for large scale CRC screening using colonoscopy, such as bowel preparation difficulties, complications of procedure and poor compliance.

ColoClear® is intended for use as an adjunctive screening test for the detection of colorectal neoplasia associated DNA markers and for the presence of occult hemoglobin in human stool. It has the potential of increasing the sensitivity of detecting CRC as compared to FOBT or faecal immunochemical test (FIT), which detects the presence of hemoglobin in stool alone. A positive result may indicate the presence of colorectal cancer or pre-malignant colorectal neoplasia. ColoClear® is not intended as a replacement for diagnostic colonoscopy. A positive result in ColoClear®, as with any screening test, should be followed by colonoscopy. ColoClear® is intended for colorectal cancer screening in average risk individuals: adults of either sex, 40 years or older, who are at high risk for colorectal cancer.