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Updated: Feb 24, 2026

Evaluation of Colorectal Cancer Risk and Prevalence by Stool DNA Integrity Detection
Published on: June 8, 2020
Colorectal cancer detection: time to abandon barium enema?
M K Shariff1, K Sheikh1, N R Carroll2
1Department of Gastroenterology, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK.
Objectives:
To assess the sensitivity of double contrast barium enema (DCBE) for diagnosing colorectal cancer (CRC).
Design:
Retrospective evaluation of DCBE performed in the 2 years prior to diagnosis of CRC.
Setting:
Teaching hospital in Cambridge, UK.
Patients:
1310 consecutive cases of CRC identified from cancer registry data.
Interventions:
DCBE and colonoscopy.
Main Outcome Measures:
Sensitivity of DCBE for diagnosing CRC.
Results:
215 patients had undergone a DCBE within the 2 years prior to diagnosis with CRC. After excluding those reported as inadequate, 37 of these were reported as normal, giving a sensitivity of 83% (81-85%).
Conclusions:
The performance of DCBE is inadequate for the exclusion of CRC. Expansion of colonoscopy and CT colonography capacity is urgently required nationally so that DCBE can finally be abandoned as a firstline test in patients at risk of CRC.
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