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A colon cancer screening test that looks for "invisible" blood in the stool can also predict an increased risk of premature death from other causes, suggests a recent study.
Researchers examined 133,921 Scottish adults for colon cancer using what is known as fecal occult blood test (FOBT). When these tests are positive for blood in the stool, it may indicate cancer, but that does not always mean that people have tumors.
In the study, 2,714 people, or two percent, scored positive on FOBT. Not only were these people nearly eight times more likely to die of colon cancer than people with negative outcomes, but they were also 58% more likely to die from other causes during the course of the year. 39, study
. Robert Steele, of the University of Dundee, Scotland, e-mailed that the result of a FOBT test was badociated with an increased risk of dying from respiratory problems. report researchers in Gut.
Some previous research has linked blood in the stool to a reduced life expectancy, even when people did not have colon cancer, but the results have been mixed and these studies often did not consider d & # 39; Other underlying medical conditions or drugs that may cause internal bleeding.
All of the participants in this study had FOBTs between 2000 and 2016. They were between 50 and 74 years old when they joined the study, and they were followed from the date of their first test up to the time of their study. at the time of death or at the end of March 2016, whichever comes first.
The study found that low-income people were more likely to get positive results at FOBT
People who prescribe aspirin or other drugs increased the risk of digestive bleeding. 19659002] The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how blood in the stool could accelerate the death of colon cancer or other causes.
Still, researchers speculate that inflammation could contribute to bleeding in the intestine. The development of some cancers and other chronic diseases of advanced age such as Alzheimer's disease.
The inflammation is just a guess, however, and other explanations may also be possible, said Dr. Uri Ladabaum, author of an accompanying editorial and director of the program of gastrointestinal cancer prevention at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California.
"For colorectal cancer, we believe that cancer bleeds itself, and some pre-cancers bleed too." "Other lesions of the gastrointestinal tract may also bleed – such as stomach cancer or benign conditions such as ulcers, abnormal blood vessels, etc."
"We do not we simply do not understand the mechanism that binds the blood hidden in the stool with the risk of death. "Ladabaum added.
Until this link becomes clearer, it is not necessary for patients to consider FOBT for purposes other than colorectal cancer screening," advises Ladabaum. "I do not would not advocate its use to detect the risk of other diseases. "
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