Blood in the stool could indicate more than colon cancer

A standard test for colon cancer that looks for blood in the stool may present more risk than doctors or patients, reported Monday researchers. They found that patients who had blood in their stools had a higher risk of dying from colon cancer.

But they also found that people who had blood in their stools were 58% more likely to die from other causes.

The surprising discovery indicates that blood hidden in the stool could be a sign of a series of life-threatening diseases, some of which are not normally associated with internal bleeding, reports the team in the review Gut.

"If the eye is the window of the soul, is it a fecal test?" Dr. Uri Ladabaum of the Stanford University School of Medicine, who does not Was not involved in the study, asked in a comment

Robert Steele of the Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, Scotland, and his colleagues reviewed the medical records of more than 130,000 people who have taken occult blood tests in the area from 2000 to 2016. The test looks for tiny traces of blood in the stool, a

During this period, about 2% of people, about 2,700 of them. among them, underwent positive tests

As expected, people with positive tests are more than seven times as likely Researchers reported

"The most interesting finding is the 39, association with non-colorectal cancer mortality, "wrote the team of Steele

. Positive blood tests were 58% more likely to die during the 16 years of the study than people with negative tests they found.

"It appears from this study that in the Scottish population, the presence of blood in feces detected by (fecal occult blood test) is associated with a number of causes of non-colorectal cancer," writes

"Some of these diseases may be associated with an increased risk of bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract." Other digestive diseases ", but others, however, are not," they added.

What's Happening?

Blood in the stool may indicate widespread inflammation in the body, said the Steele team. The inflammation is associated with most of the most common causes of death, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease

"In addition, predisposing factors to health: obesity, sedentary lifestyle, smoking, alcohol It has been shown that the associated hemorrhage Colon cancer does not originate from colon tumors, but rather is caused by this disease. they said that the general inflammation

In 2013, a team in Taiwan achieved similar results. Their smallest study of people in Taiwan found that people who had positive faecal occult occult stool tests were 15 to 24 percent more likely to die from any cause within the next six to eight years

. "Ladabaum wrote.

At this point, there is not enough information to say if people should use such a test for general health screening, or do anything other than d & # 39; 39, get a complete colonoscopy after a positive score on "It is possible that the general alert to the patient and his primary care physician is reasonable, but hopefully the primary care physicians will". will already occupy risk factors for these other diseases, said Ladabaum. "Ladabaum wrote.