Medically Reviewed By
Registered Pharmacist
In this article, we will look at what is tested, how to test and what the results mean.
Our Comprehensive Cancer & Gut Inflammation Screening Test for women is specifically designed to screen for your gut health and offers the addition of CA125 marker for Ovarian Cancer all for an inclusive price of £195.
Everything is collected at home and returned to our UKAS-accredited, ISO 15189-certified partner laboratory. If any result is abnormal, you receive a free referral letter from our GPhC-registered pharmacist to take to your NHS GP. The test is for adults aged 18 and over.
Bowel cancer (also known as colorectal cancer) is cancer of the large bowel. The bowel is made up of two main parts – the small bowel and the large bowel. The small bowel essentially covers makes up most of your digestive system – and it is very long, approximately 4 to 6 meters in length. Its main role is to digest food and take in the nutrients. It is made up of three parts: duodenum, jejunum and ileum.
The large bowel is responsible for turning the food waste into stool ready for it to be got rid of from the body (when having a poo).
Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK, with 48,213 new cases a year — more than 130 every day — of which around 21,400 are in women. It is also the second most common cause of cancer death in the UK, with around 17,700 deaths a year, around 8,000 of them in women. Roughly one in twenty people in the UK will develop it during their lifetime.
The only recommended test to screen for Bowel Cancer in the UK is the Quantitative Faecal Immunochemical Test (QFIT). This test is recommended by the UK government health body NICE and is currently used by the NHS in the national bowel cancer screening programme.
The QFIT is not designed to diagnose bowel cancer but to screen for potential early stage of the disease – where it is more treatable. The QFIT screens for bowel cancer by detecting small amounts of blood in your poo (or the medical term – stool). When we mean small amounts – the test can detect even blood that you might not visually be able to see (called occult blood). In fact, the QFIT can detect as little as 1.8 micrograms (µg) of blood per gram of stool. To put this into perspective, a micrograms is one-millionth of a gram – So very small indeed.
Our All Checked Up Bowel Cancer Screening test can be ordered privately as a standalone test or as part of our Comprehensive Cancer & Gut Inflammation Screening Test . Our Bowel Cancer Screening test uses the QFIT method for screening for bowel cancer and uses the same machine as the NHS bowel cancer screening programme – The OC Sensor Pledia.
The QFIT can be taken at any time of the day as it uses antibodies specific to human blood or haemoglobin, which is why — unlike the older faecal occult blood tests — it is not thrown off by blood from food in your diet, and requires no dietary restrictions.
Calprotectin is a protein produced by a type of white blood cell called neutrophils. White blood cells are part of our immune system. When there’s inflammation in the gut, these neutrophils make their way to the site of inflammation and can release calprotectin which eventually ends up in the stool (poo). The amount of Calprotectin can be measured from a simple stool test.
The calprotectin stool test is used to distinguish between inflammatory bowel disease and non-inflammatory bowel conditions. This is because the level of calprotectin in the stool correlates with the level of inflammation in the gut.
Unlike the bowel cancer screening QFIT test, there is not a linear approach for determining an abnormal calprotectin test result. The universally accepted guideline states that any patient with a Calprotectin result which is 250 µg/g or above should have an urgent referral for further investigation into inflammatory bowel disease. Equally, results which are less than 250 µg/g but greater than 50 µg/g is also considered abnormal, but with the recommendation that the calprotectin test should be repeated after 2 weeks depending on the magnitude of the result and clinical context. This is because calprotectin levels can be elevated by certain medications, such as NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) like ibuprofen and PPIs like omeprazole as well as infections. If the repeated test result is then above 100 µg/g but still less than 250 µg/g, then a routine referral for further investigation into inflammatory bowel disease should be offered.
However, some NHS trusts internally follow the guidelines set out in the York-Care pathway which sets an initial cut-off level at 100 µg/g instead of the traditional level of 50 µg/g.
Although calprotectin test result can detect inflammation, it cannot provide a specific reason for what may be causing the inflammation. Nevertheless, it is currently the most sensitive and specific test for a non-invasive approach for distinguishing between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and non-inflammatory bowel conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Our All Checked Up Gut Inflammation test can be ordered privately as a standalone test or as part of our Comprehensive Cancer & Gut Inflammation Screening Test . Our Gut Inflammation test uses the same machine as the QFIT test for bowel cancer screening – meaning patients can now take one stool sample and test for both Gut Inflammation and screening for bowel cancer with our Bowel Cancer Screening & Gut Inflammation test.
Helicobacter pylori (H Pylori) is a bacteria that infects the lining of the stomach. It is thought to spread from person to person and through contaminated food and water, and most infections are acquired in childhood. More than half of the world’s population is thought to have H Pylori infection, but prevalence in many areas of the UK is below 15% and still falling.
Infection often causes no symptoms, but when symptoms do occur, they are usually centred around gut related issues such as bloating, fullness, early satiety and nausea. Infection is also present in almost all duodenal ulcers and most gastric ulcers (these are two types of stomach ulcers). Helicobacter pylori can be detected by either a breath test or stool antigen test and if detected can be treated with a course of antibiotics and a stomach protector medicine called a proton pump inhibitor called triple therapy. There is a blood test, however this is often used to check for past infection.
While the vast majority of helicobacter pylori bacteria infections will not lead to stomach cancer, Cancer Research UK reports that Helicobacter pylori bacterial infection accounts for a very small number of cancer cases in the UK. As infection with Helicobacter pylori has become less common in the UK, stomach cancer cases have also fallen.
There is evidence to suggest that certain strains of helicobacter pylori infection may increase the risk of developing stomach cancer by causing chronic damage to the stomach lining through the development ulcers and long-lasting inflammation, known as severe chronic atrophic gastritis, which can progress to cancer.
Our All Checked Up Stomach Cancer Risk (H Pylori) test can be ordered privately as a standalone test or as part of our Comprehensive Cancer & Gut Inflammation Screening Test. Our H Pylori uses a highly sensitive CLIA method to quantitatively measure the level of Helicobacter pylori bacterium from a single stool sample.
Ovarian cancer starts in the ovaries or the fallopian tubes. Women have two ovaries, either side of the uterus and their role is to produce and store eggs and make hormones that control your menstrual cycle and pregnancy.
Ovarian cancer is the sixth most common cancer in women in the UK, with around 7,000 new cases every year and around 4,100 deaths, and it is estimated that 1 in 50 UK women will be diagnosed with it in their lifetime.
Ovarian cancer is currently diagnosed using a combination of scans and tests. One test that is often used in the diagnostic pathway is a blood test to measure the level of a protein called CA125 in the blood. It’s normal for women to have CA125 in their blood, but ovarian cancer, as well as other conditions, can sometimes raise the amount of CA125. Unlike the Quantitative Faecal Immunochemical Test (QFIT) which is used to screen for Bowel Cancer, the CA125 blood test is not a screening test for ovarian cancer, but is used primarily along with other tests to help diagnose or rule out ovarian cancer. CA125 blood test is also used to monitor the treatment of ovarian cancer or check for signs of recurrence (the cancer returning).
There has been increasing evidence to show the usefulness of the CA125 blood test in assessing women who may have ovarian cancer, and more recently, the government health body NICE have updated their guidance on when a CA125 blood test should be considered abnormal – using an age-related threshold instead of a standard universal cut-off value.
Does this test replace my NHS bowel cancer screening? No. If you are aged 50 to 74 in England you will be sent an NHS kit every two years. A private qFIT is useful if you are under 50, overdue, or want to test more often, but it does not enter you into the NHS pathway. Additionally, our All Checked Up provate qFIT test screens at a lower cut-off threshold than the NHS national screening programme.
How many samples do I need to give? Two stool samples and one finger-prick blood sample. Both stool samples can come from the same bowel movement.
How long do results take? Usually within 48 hours of the laboratory receiving your samples. You will get a secure email with a link to download them.
Does a raised CA125 mean I have ovarian cancer? No. Many benign conditions raise CA125, including endometriosis, ovarian cysts, fibroids and simply having a period. It needs interpreting alongside your symptoms and further tests.
Does a positive H. pylori result mean I have stomach cancer? No. It means you are carrying a bacterium that raises your risk. There’s a small risk that an increase in infections go on to stomach cancer
What if I have no symptoms? These tests can still be worth having, particularly the qFIT and H. pylori. But be clear that a set of normal results is not a guarantee of good health, and read the accuracy section above for what each test can and cannot tell you.
Is there a men’s version? Yes — the Comprehensive Cancer & Gut Inflammation Screening Test for men is identical except that the CA125 test is replaced with a prostate cancer PSA test.
References
The All Checked Up Comprehensive Cancer & Gut Inflammation Screening Test provides an all-in-one screening and health test focused on gut health and cancers. In
The CA 125 blood test remains the most widely used marker for ovarian cancer, and it is the blood test the UK health body NICE
Book an in-person, phone or video consultation with one of our Pharmacists or clinicians to discuss what blood or health screening test is best for you. The consultation fee is deducted from any subsequent blood test you book with us following the consultation
