The FIT test is used in NHS bowel cancer screening and to assess people with bowel symptoms. Collect your sample at home, send it to our UKAS-accredited lab for analysis and get your numerical FIT result and doctor's report in under a day.
About the FIT test for bowel cancer screening
The FIT test - also called a qFIT test - checks for blood in the stool which can be an early sign of bowel cancer.
This private FIT test is the same type of FIT stool test used by the NHS but you'll also get your actual FIT level and a doctor's report explaining what your level means and any next-steps. You can download your formal lab report so you can easily share it with your doctor.
What's the difference between FIT and qFIT?
Selph provides the qFIT test which is the gold-standard FIT test used in NHS bowel cancer screening programme.
FIT stands for faecal immunochemical test. qFIT (quantitative FIT) is a specific type of FIT test that measures the amount of blood detected in the stool sample and provides a numeric value rather than simply "positive" or "negative".
When should I start screening for bowel cancer?
Bowel cancer is common and will affect around 1-in-15 of us. Rates of bowel cancer are going up people under 50 so we recommend starting to screen for bowel cancer with a FIT stool test every year from your 40s. This is the best practice followed in other countries like the USA.
What are the main symptoms of bowel cancer?
The main symptoms of bowel cancer include:
- A change in bowel habits
- Blood in the stool
- Stomach pain or lumps
- Weight loss
- Unexplained fatigue or tiredness
In the early stages, many people with bowel cancer have no symptoms but a qFIT test can pick up hidden blood in the stool, identifying people who might need further investigation for bowel cancer. The sooner you detect bowel cancer, the better your chances of beating it.
What do the FIT test results mean?
Your bowel cancer FIT test result will include your actual FIT level and a report from one of our doctors explaining what your level means. You'll also be able to download your formal lab report so you can easily share it with your doctor.
A negative FIT test result means that no blood was detected in your stool and it's much less likely that you have bowel cancer.
A positive FIT test result means that blood was detected in your stool and you'll get a number with the amount of blood in the stool, measured in micrograms per gram of stool (µg/g). This is usually between 4 and 200µg/g. The higher the number, the more likely it is that bowel cancer is the cause.
FIT level (µg/g) Risk of having bowel cancer (approx.) Less than 4 ("negative") 1 in 1000 4 - 9.9 1 in 160 10 - 99.9 1 in 30 100 or higher 1 in 5
Limitations of the bowel cancer qFIT test
Although FIT tests are one of the best tests we have to pick up bowel cancer early, they're not perfect:
- Around 1 in 1000 people can have a negative qFIT test but later be found to have bowel cancer.
- Most people with a positive qFIT test do not have bowel cancer. Remember, a qFIT test doesn't diagnose bowel cancer, it just looks for the presence of blood in the stool.
- If a qFIT test picks up blood in your stool, you may need a camera test to look inside the bowel to know what's caused it.
Description provided by Selph.