A study from England-based Oxford University further validated Medial EarlySign's ColonFlag.
Here's what you should know:
1. ColonFlag is an algorithm platform that helps identify patients who are at risk of colorectal cancer. It also supports other early detection methods including screening and active case finding.
2. The Oxford study follows results reported in the U.S. and Israel.
3. Patients that were 40-plus years were risk-stratified using ColonFlag. Researchers screened those patients for CRC over several time intervals. Researchers also undertook a case-controlled analysis and a cohort study to estimate predictive values.
4. Researchers discovered the area under the curve for the 18 month to 24 month period was 0.776. Performance improved as the time interval reduced. The positive predictive values at 99.5 percent specificity were 8.8 percent, with a negative predictive value of 99.6 percent.
Oxford University senior clinical research fellow Tim A. Holt, MD, said, "Application of the Medial EarlySign algorithm to routinely collected primary care data provides an additional means of identifying those at risk of colorectal cancer. Our findings may provide a role for the risk score as a tool to assist case findings in a range of settings, and could also help target individuals who do not take up invitations for fecal occult blood test lab testing, or who refuse colonoscopy."