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The gold standard for colon cancer screening is the colonoscopy. It's a very good test, because you can prevent colon cancer as well as diagnose colon cancer. If someone has a polyp, then you can basically find that, remove that and prevent the disease. If you find an early stage cancer, then again you can find it, mark it, know where it's at. There are some other tests including a FIT test: that is, a stool card that looks for things such as blood. It also looks for different markers that come off of tumors or advanced polyps. It's not the gold standard because it's not as specific and sensitive as a colonoscopy, but again, it is a way of screening for colonoscopy. The fecal test, or the old test where you're just looking for blood, that's again a very old test. It has kind of fallen out of favor because it is not very specific or sensitive for colon cancer screening.

A colonoscopy is again the gold standard for colon cancer screening, again because it is a test that can prevent colon cancer and also detect it. None of the other tests are like that. Most of them are basically finding colon cancer when it has occurred. So if you do a stool test for blood or a FIT test or a Cologuard test, when those become positive, it means that there is something there, usually that's causing those tests to become positive. A colonoscopy again: you can go up there and take off polyps, prevent the disease ... If you find an early stage cancer, you can take that out and it's about a 95 - 96% cure rate. If you do something like a barium enema, a FIT test or a fecal occult test, a Cologuard test, those are again looking ... are finding things that are already a problem.

In order to determine what type is best for them, they should probably discuss it with their physician. Whether it be a gastroenterologist or their primary care physician.

A person that's of average risk can use the other tests ... a FIT test, a barium enema, a Cologuard ... The occult stool for blood test, the fecal test, is again out of favor. The guidelines are trying to get people to do whatever they can to be tested. The gold standard again, is a colonoscopy; most people would like to direct people to have that done. But if people aren't willing to do that, if there are some cost restraints, if there is something related to people's fear of the colonoscopy, of having sedation, then by all means, anything to try to get people to get tested would be preferable than nothing at all.