Symptomatic FIT for Colon Cancer Detection, a Pilot Study

This prospective pilot cohort study will evaluate the feasibility of implementing a symptomatic FIT research strategy in the UC San Diego Health system. Recruitment will use electronic health record screening and clinician and patient outreach. Consented participants will provide an at-home stool specimen for research FIT testing and questionnaire data. Usual-care complete blood count, ferritin, and colonoscopy findings will be collected. Feasibility assessments include recruitment, enrollment, stool specimen return, and completion of study activities. Preliminary FIT performance will be assessed against adequate-quality usual-care colonoscopy completed within six months of FIT. A transition from UCSD laboratory FIT testing to quantitative research FIT testing performed by Polymedco is planned, conditional on IRB approval and execution of the required institutional agreement. Participants using the quantitative FIT kit will mail specimens directly to Polymedco. Specimens and results will be coded by study ID, and the linkage key will remain at UCSD without Polymedco access. The study is supported by a gift from Curebound.