Fecal blood test Positive

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ron44124
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2018 4:41 pm

Fecal blood test Positive

Postby ron44124 » Thu Aug 30, 2018 8:41 pm

Hi,

I am new here and have read many posts. My wife had a colonoscopy 4 years ago . No polyups were found. Dr said see you in 10 years. Recently my wife had her annual physical and was given a fecal test thing to bring home. She did the test and received a call from the doctors office the test was positive. I am very worried. She has had a irritable bowel problem for a while. Dr said to use immodium which works well. Her mother has the bowel problem also.
My question is if a colonoscopy was clear 4 years ago, how likely could this be a cancer problem? Perhaps I'm jumping to conclusions. She had no symptoms. No bleeding that can be seen, pain, etc.
She does get stomach distress from the diahrea. Her next appointment to see the gastro doctor is the end of September.
I appreciate your help. Thank you. Ron

boxhill
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Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2018 11:40 am

Re: Fecal blood test Positive

Postby boxhill » Fri Aug 31, 2018 7:48 am

All I can tell you is that I got the 10-yr all clear in 2010 and 8 years later was diagnosed with Stage IV. I asked my oncologist if it would have been caught if I had moved to a 5-yr schedule when my sister had CRC in 2013. He said maybe, maybe not. He doesn't think that my tumor sprang from the kind of polyp that is more easily detectable.

It is probably unlikely, but it is possible. Better test and catch it early, IMHO.
F, 64 at DX CRC Stage IV
3/17/18 blockage, r hemi
11 of 25 LN,5 mesentery nodes
5mm liver met
pT3 pN2b pM1
BRAF wild, KRAS G12D
dMMR, MSI-H
5/18 FOLFOX
7/18 and 11/18 CT NED
12/18 MRI 5mm liver mass, 2 LNs in porta hepatis
12/31/18 Keytruda
6/19 Multiphasic CT LNs normal, Liver stable
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susie0915
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Re: Fecal blood test Positive

Postby susie0915 » Fri Aug 31, 2018 11:29 am

I also had a positive fecal test in 2015. Had a clear colonoscopy 5 years prior. Saw the GI and of course another colonoscopy was warranted. Was diagnosed with stage 2a rectal cancer. When I asked the surgeon how long he thought it had been there he said 5 years. He said the colonoscopy 5 years ago probably missed it because it was just too small or began forming right after. My advice is to have your wife see a GI and have the colonoscopy. Since she had a clean colonoscopy 4 years ago, if anything is going on it will likely have been caught early.
58 yrs old Dx @ 55
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0/24 nodes
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11/18 CEA .6
5/19 CT NED, CEA <.5
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11/19 CEA <.5

ron44124
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Joined: Wed Aug 29, 2018 4:41 pm

Re: Fecal blood test Positive

Postby ron44124 » Fri Aug 31, 2018 6:16 pm

Thank you for your replies.

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O Stoma Mia
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Re: Fecal blood test Positive

Postby O Stoma Mia » Sat Sep 01, 2018 9:50 am

ron44124 wrote:Hi,

I am new here and have read many posts. My wife had a colonoscopy 4 years ago . No polyups were found. Dr said see you in 10 years. Recently my wife had her annual physical and was given a fecal test thing to bring home. She did the test and received a call from the doctors office the test was positive. I am very worried. She has had a irritable bowel problem for a while. Dr said to use immodium which works well. Her mother has the bowel problem also.
My question is if a colonoscopy was clear 4 years ago, how likely could this be a cancer problem? Perhaps I'm jumping to conclusions. She had no symptoms. No bleeding that can be seen, pain, etc.
She does get stomach distress from the diarrhea. Her next appointment to see the gastro doctor is the end of September.
I appreciate your help. Thank you. Ron

I have two questions:
  1. Do you know what kind of fecal blood test it was? There are several kinds approved for colon cancer testing (chemical vs. immunologic), and some are more sensitive or more accurate than others. Generally speaking, the more sensitive ones are the more expensive ones.
  2. Was your wife given a set of instructions to follow before taking the test? Some of the tests require abstaining from various foods and medicines for up to a week before taking the test. There is the possibility of "false positive" if the instructions are not followed.

    Here is a quote from MedicineNet covering of some of the considerations for fecal blood tests. In any event, whenever a fecal blood test turns out to be positive,it is not a definitive finding but almost always calls for a follow-up confirmation with a colonoscopy to check out the true situation.
    How do the results of chemical fecal occult blood testing compare with immunologic fecal occult blood testing?

    A chemical fecal occult blood test is inexpensive and easy, but it has several disadvantages.

    1. Substances in fruits and vegetables can mimic heme and cause chemical fecal occult blood tests to be falsely positive, that is, falsely abnormal. Therefore, it is necessary to restrict certain fruits and vegetables before and during the collection of stool samples.
    2. Unlike heme which can travel intact from the stomach or small intestine and into the stool, globin is destroyed in the small intestine. As a result, a positive chemical fecal occult blood test can be caused by bleeding anywhere in the stomach or intestines, but a positive immunologic fecal occult blood test only occurs when there is bleeding into the colon. Therefore, it is necessary to restrict red meat containing hemoglobin before and during the collection of stool samples or the heme from the ingested meat will cause a falsely positive test.
    3. Some drugs commonly cause small amounts of bleeding into the stomach or small intestine. Moreover, vitamin C and a few other drugs can cause an abnormal chemical fecal occult blood tests. Therefore, these drugs must be stopped before and during the collection of samples.

    The immunologic fecal occult blood test has additional advantages over the chemical fecal occult blood test. First, it is more sensitive for blood. This means that given the same amount of blood in the stool, the immunologic fecal occult blood test will more frequently be abnormal. In other words, it will more frequently detect cancers and precancerous polyps. Second, it is more specific for blood. That is, there will be fewer abnormal tests due to interfering substances in the diet, and as a result, an abnormal immunologic fecal occult blood test will more commonly be due to cancer or a precancerous polyp. As a result, less follow-up testing (for example, colonoscopy) will be necessary to pursue a falsely abnormal fecal occult blood test.
    Reference: https://www.medicinenet.com/fecal_occult_blood_tests/article.htm#how_do_the_results_of_chemical_fecal_occult_blood_testing_compare_with_immunologic_fecal_occult_blood_testing

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steiconi
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Re: Fecal blood test Positive

Postby steiconi » Sun Sep 02, 2018 1:54 am

The FOBT detects blood, not cancer. The blood may have come from hemorrhoids, ulcers, or even a bloody nose. Don't freak out until you know something for sure.
I am not my disease.


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