Hidden blood in stool may point out cancer and not just bowel and colon cancer a research suggest.

Faecal occult blood test FOTB is used ti screen hidden blood in faeces and bowel cancer. Prescriptions for aspirin or other drugs that boost the risk of digestive tract bleeds were also more likely to be associated with a positive test result.

Bowel or colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the world.

Researchers led by Professor Robert Steele from Dundee University analysed 2,700 people whose FOTB test is positive and there are no obvious explanations for their findings.

Those who scored positive for FOBT were more likely to to suffer from, than those who scored negative with a 58 per cent heightened risk of early death from all causes.

Older age, increasing levels of deprivation, and male gender were associated with a greater likelihood of a positive test result.

But a positive result could be used to alert those participants that they may be at risk of other life-limiting illnesses, the researchers said.

A positive FOTB test was linked most to a greater risk of death from circulatory, respiratory, digestive tract, neuropsychogical, blood and hormone diseases.



While it was also strongly linked with death from other types of cancer, excluding bowel, according to the study published in the journal Gut.

But the researchers speculate inflammation, which can cause gut bleeding seen in a positive FOBT test, may provide the missing link.

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Evidence exists to show that many cancers and Alzheimer’s can develop against a background of chronic inflammation, among other conditions.

They claimed half of bowel cancer screening patients who test FOTB positive don’t actually have the deadly disease.




https://medfort.com.ng/hidden-blood-in-stool-may-point-out-cancer/