Colorectal cancer blood test to be assessed in mammogram recipients

A mobile bus that has been used to offer women breast cancer screening in rural parts of West Virginia may help test the efficacy of a novel blood test to screen for colorectal cancer, according to a press release.

“This study is testing the acceptability of the screening test in our population and the feasibility of offering this alternative colorectal cancer screening on a mobile mammography unit,” Stephenie Kennedy-Rea, EdD, associate director of the WVU Cancer Institute, said in the release.

Kennedy-Rea, Richard M. Goldberg, MD, director of the WVU Cancer Institute, and colleagues are in the process of assessing the viability of a blood test for detecting colorectal cancer.

The test, approved by the FDA in 2016, looks for SEPT9, an abnormal gene associated with colorectal cancer.

The researchers, according to the release, anticipate offering the blood test to 300 women volunteers across West Virginia who have come to a mobile mammography bus to undergo breast cancer screening.

Health care providers will recommend the patient undergo a colonoscopy if the colorectal cancer screening blood test detects SEPT9.

“Most of the time, the test will be negative, and those people will be off the hook,” Goldberg said in the release. “They can be reassured that, right now, everything’s good. We’re trying to find the people who have abnormal results. The research protocol will cover their colonoscopy if they don't have insurance.”

Although there are a range of screening options for colorectal cancer, the researchers said they hope that this study will help them understand the cost-effectiveness and ease of access the blood test offers.

“People delay or do not screen for a number of reasons, including fear, access to care, lack of insurance that covers the test, travel, time and lack of awareness for the need of colorectal cancer screening,” Kennedy-Rea said. “We need to shine the light on the need for colorectal cancer screening and the fact that there are a number of evidence-based screening options available to patients.”

The researchers, according to the release, are using the mobile mammography bus to combat the barrier individuals in rural areas face when trying to access elite care.

“If there’s not a gastroenterologist in your 10-county area in southern West Virginia and you’ve chosen colonoscopy as your preferred method of screening, you’re unlikely to get it done,” Goldberg said. “If you don’t even have access to a primary care doctor and your main care is through an emergency room, you’re not going to have a stool-based test done.”

Goldberg added that there has been significant interest in the use of blood tests for detecting and managing cancer, and that he anticipates this method to continue to grow.

“It’s not a standard approach yet, but in 10 years — and, I hope, sooner — I project it will be,” he said.