Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
close window
Housecall Archives
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
close window
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Why it's done
By Mayo Clinic staffYour doctor may recommend a fecal occult blood test to:
- Screen for colon cancer. If you're age 50 or older and at average risk of colon cancer, your doctor may recommend a fecal occult blood test every year to screen for colon cancer. In addition, however, you may need other screening tests that allow the doctor to examine the colon directly.
- Evaluate possible causes of unexplained anemia. Anemia is a condition in which there aren't enough healthy red blood cells to carry adequate oxygen to your tissues. Sometimes a fecal occult blood test is used to determine whether gastrointestinal bleeding — such as a bleeding ulcer — is contributing to anemia.
References
- Levin B, et al. Screening and surveillance for the early detection of colorectal cancer and adenomatous polyps, 2008: A joint guideline from the American Cancer Society, the US Multi-Society Task Force on Colorectal Cancer, and the American College of Radiology. Gastroenterology. 2008;134:1570.
- Hundt S, et al. Comparative evaluation of immunochemical fecal occult blood tests for colorectal adenoma detection. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2009;150:162.
- Fecal occult blood test: The test sample. American Association for Clinical Chemistry. http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/fecal_occult_blood/sample.html. Accessed March 12, 2009.
- Fecal occult blood test: The test. American Association for Clinical Chemistry. http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/fecal_occult_blood/test.html. Accessed March 12, 2009.
- Bynum TE. Evaluation of occult gastrointestinal bleeding. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 12, 2009.
- Pignone M, et al. Meta-analysis of dietary restriction during fecal occult blood testing. Effective Clinical Practice. 2001;4:150.
- Van Rossum LG, et al. Random comparison of guaiac and immunochemical fecal occult blood tests for colorectal cancer in a screening population. Gastroenterology. 2008;135:82.
