Making colon-cancer screening
more tolerable
Tim Terrill is president of ARCpoint Labs of Scottsdale North.
I
t’s the word that freezes everyone right in their tracks: Colonoscopy. It evokes such a disquieting, repulsive image. There’s the prep. There’s the act of performing it. Fortunately, the person receiving it is partially or completely out while it’s being done. It knocks out about three days of a person’s life, although there is no denying that by doing it, it might add time to a person’s life if any issue is caught early. Not crazy about colonoscopy? Well, the other accepted method of screening for colorectal cancer is the stool sample. The subject gets to do that one personally, without benefit of anesthesia. Neither makes the specter of turning 50 pretty. What if a simple blood test, that requires no special preparation, not even dietary, could replace the two commonly accepted colorectal screening methods that cause so many people to turn up their noses? Where
32 | Scottsdale Airpark News October 2016
Airpark lab offers blood tests as alternative to colonoscopies By Lee Shappell Photos courtesy of ARCpoint Labs of Scottsdale North needles and blood are the only caveats for the squeamish? That might be preferable to handling something nasty or having a probe stuck in a place where you don’t really want it. Relief may be on the horizon. In April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved what amounts to a colorectal-cancer screen via a blood draw, and among the first labs in Arizona certified to do it is ARCpoint Labs of Scottsdale North in the Airpark area. “We haven’t done that many yet,” says Tim Terrill, owner of ARCpoint in Scottsdale. “It’s new. The word’s not out. We are working with the national Colon Cancer Alliance to do some educational events. “Lots of people just don’t get the screening done. They don’t want to do a colonoscopy. They don’t want to deal with a take-home stool test. So this is just another tool to help more people get screened.” Technically, the Epi proColon is a molecular test that detects a methylated Septin
9 DNA biomarker in the blood, a gene that is increased in colorectal cancer. If the test comes back positive, the patient is urged to see a physician and get a traditional colonoscopy. The FDA is saying that the Epi proColon blood test is for patients who are unwilling or unable to be screened by recommended methods. At this point, it is not intended as a substitute for patients who are willing to undergo the routine screening methods. But that may be only a matter of time. The medical community has been slow to warm to the test, which has roughly 18 percent false-positive results. However, among the false positives, about half have revealed markers for other colon issues, Terrill says. Not many insurance companies are yet onboard for reimbursement, either, he acknowledges. “In general, there is a lack of education,” Terrill says. “Certainly the physicians will