Pharmacy Daily | Pharmacists and FOB tests

PHARMACISTS should focus on Immunochemical faecal occult blood (FOB) tests as the preferred option for bowel cancer screening in pharmacy, according to Bowel Cancer Australia. Addressing delegates at last weekend’s APP2012 conference on the Gold Coast, Dr Cameron Bell, Director of Bowel Cancer Australia, outlined Bowel Cancer Australia’s new Statement on Faecal Occult Blood Tests (FOB tests) for bowel cancer screening, which puts forth the position that immunochemical tests are the superior FOB test for bowel cancer screening. Currently there are two different bowel cancer testing kits in Australia, immunochemical- which use specific antibodies to detect human haemoglobin, and guaiac which detect the ‘haem’ component of haemoglobin, the molecule which carries oxygen in the blood. “Immunochemical tests, such as those used by BowelScreen Australia and the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program, are likely to detect nine out on 10 cancers compared to guaiac tests which detect about four out of 10 cancers,” Bell said. According to Bell, Australian pharmacists need to look at the evidence on the comparative value of different screening tests, adding that screening with an inferior product could lead to missed cases of polyps and bowel cancer. Backing up Bowel Cancer Australia’s position on FOB tests, Bell said that immunochemical tests detect two and a half times more the number of cancers and advanced adenomas than their guaiac counterparts, without the need for significantly more colonoscopies, and that they also give a true positive result for cancer more often than guaiac (88% vs 54%) and significant polyps (43% vs 23%). For more details see www.bowelscreenaustralia.org.

---

The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 13 Mar 12
To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 13 Mar 12