DRAWBACKS

• No test offers complete assurance and nor does this stool test. Sometimes the lab finds traces of blood in your stool sample when there is nothing wrong. Sometimes the lab does not find any traces of blood, even though there are polyps or colon cancer is later diagnosed. Polyps do not always bleed, after all.

• The stool test is a snapshot, so it is best to repeat it every two years. But polyps or colon cancer can also develop between two stool tests. If you have any symptoms, contact your GP. 
• You will have to wait a little while for the result.

• If the result is abnormal, we advise you to undergo a visual examination or colonoscopy. Only then will you know where the excess blood comes from. This can cause tension. If the colonoscopy shows that there is nothing wrong, then you were needlessly worried. A colonoscopy is a simple and safe examination. The chance of complications is slim. 

• It is possible that you are being treated unnecessarily. Polyps, the precursors of colon cancer, grow very slowly and are not always cancerous. They are removed in any case during a visual examination or colonoscopy, even if they would never become cancerous. After all, one cannot tell.

• Some people who are diagnosed with colon cancer in the screening programme will still die from the disease. Survival rates depend on the stage at which the cancer is discovered.