It's best not to take this test while you're on your period. You don't need to make any changes to your diet or any medications and supplements that you may take.

This simple stool test checks for tiny amounts of blood in the stool which you wouldn't be able to see. Blood in the stool can be a sign of a bowel polyp or cancer. If you have a positive result then we would usually recommend that you have a further test, such as a bowel camera test or colonoscopy, to have a look inside the bowel. If you have a negative test then it's very unlikely that you have bowel cancer.

When you take a FIT stool test with us, we'll give you the actual numeric value returned by the lab. We consider any amount of blood detected by a FIT to be a positive test. This is because studies show that, if you have bowel symptoms, even a very low FIT level of 4-9µg/g can be caused by bowel cancer. Different qFIT thresholds are considered "positive" in the NHS. If you have gut symptoms and take a qFIT test with your GP, they would generally only consider a result of 10µg/g to be positive. If you take a qFIT test as part of the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, they only consider a result of 120µg/g to be positive.

Firstly, it's important to stress that most people with a positive FIT result (even if the level is high) do not have bowel cancer. They have another cause for the blood, such as haemorrhoids (piles). If you have a positive FIT result, we will advise you to see your GP. They will go through your symptoms and medical history. They will discuss with you whether further tests, such as a colonoscopy to look inside the bowel, are necessary.

Our qFIT tests are analysed by The Doctors Laboratory (TDL). TDL are one of the largest laboratories in the UK and test for both the NHS (e.g. University College Hospital London) and private providers such as ourselves. Either way, the exact same testing platforms and procedures are used.

However, no test is perfect and there can always be "false positive" and "false negative" results.

Using a "positive" cut-off of 4µg/g (the limit of detection for the test), the sensitivity of qFIT to pick up bowel cancer is over 93.4% with a specificity of 77%. The "negative predictive value" (the liklihood that you don't have bowel cancer if you get a negative qFIT result) is approximately 99.9%^ref.

We do not recommend using this test panel if you:

• are a child (17 years or under). Bowel cancer is essentially unheard of at this age and if you're concerned, it would be better to discuss this with your GP.
• are pregnant. If you feel you need to take a qFIT test and are pregnant, please discuss this with us.
• are feeling acutely unwell - e.g. with a cold or flu or if you have new-onset (i.e. within the last few days) gut symptoms like stomach pain or diarrhoea.

If you're unsure if you should use this test panel, please contact us for advice.