England’s National Health Service’s (NHS’) fecal immunochemical test (FIT) has reduced referrals for suspected bowel cancer by 140,000, while the number of cancer cases has remained stable.
This shows that the FIT test is helping massively reduce unnecessary follow-up hospital trips for patients with suspected bowel cancer, while not impacting actual cases found, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said in a Wednesday statement.
The FIT test was given a positive NICE guidance in 2023. This at-home screening test detects small amounts of blood in fecal matter, which can be a sign of bowel cancer, as well as other conditions. It is then returned and sent to a laboratory for testing, with results coming back within two weeks.
In this setting, it is typically used for middle-aged patients by their primary care doctors if they have had a sudden or sustained change in their bowel habits.
If there is no blood in the stool, this will usually mean a patient does not need any follow-ups.
If blood is found, patients will typically be asked for further investigations, such as a colonoscopy. Before the test, older patients with bowel changes may have been sent straight to secondary care for more invasive investigations, which also take longer to complete.
NICE said in a statement that this test is “sparing thousands of people from unnecessary hospital investigations for bowel cancer, while helping them get faster answers about whether they have the disease.” Its latest data found that in 2024-25, there were 140,000 fewer referrals for suspected bowel cancer than expected.
But, crucially, the agency found that “the number of cancers detected has remained stable, meaning the test is successfully identifying patients who genuinely need urgent investigation and those who can be safely reassured they do not have cancer.”
Bowel cancer is the second-biggest cancer killer in the U.K. FIT is also now used across the NHS for all people over 50 as a general at-home screening tool, with tests repeated every two years.
