Cologuard®, a new stool-DNA screening test for detecting colon cancer, is not as good at finding precancerous polyps as a colonoscopy, and, unlike colonoscopy, it can't remove them.
Cologuard has recently gained popularity because it is less invasive than a traditional colonoscopy test. Intrigued by lively ads with the sprightly Cologuard box jumping around on its blue legs, many adults aged 45 and older wonder if the test may work for them, allowing them to bypass a more invasive colonoscopy.
“Cologuard is a test that's been on the market for a few years now,” says Brian Fritz, APRN, an Advanced Practitioner Registered Nurse at Gastroenterology Associates of SW Florida. “Some patients might have been exposed to it or have friends that have been exposed to it. Cologuard is a box test that gets mailed to your house, you collect the sample, and mail it back to the company.”
