At-home fecal immunochemical test screening was found to reduce risk of colon cancer death by 33%, according to a study published July 19 in JAMA Network Open.
Researchers from academic institutions across the U.S. analyzed the data of 10,711 individuals from January 2002 to December 2017. The data was compiled from EHRs, administrative databases and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Participants in the study were patients ages 52 to 85 who died from colon cancer. Those patients were then matched to randomly selected people for comparative analysis. Participants were matched on a 1-to-8 ratio with people who did not have colon cancer at the time of the patient's diagnosis. Matches were made based on demographic and health plan membership information.
Individuals who completed one or more at-home FIT screening had a 33% lower risk of dying from colon cancers overall and a 42% lower risk for left colon and rectum cancers specifically. At-home FIT screenings reduced the risk of colon cancer across racial groups, the study said.
"The evidence shows that FIT done every year is as good as getting a colonoscopy every 10 years for screening people of average risk," Chyke Doubeni, MD, chief health equity officer for The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus and a senior author of the study, said in a July 25 news release. "This study should give individuals and their clinicians the confidence to use this noninvasive test for screening and find ways to deploy these tests in underserved communities where colorectal cancer screening rates are very low."