A new at-home colon-cancer-screening program is growing in Canada and results seem positive so far. The program, Cancer Care Nova Scotia, is available in six provincial health districts and will be phased into three others.

The program is for residents between 50 and 74. They receive screening kits in the mail, collect a small stool sample, put the sample container into a biohazard-approved envelope and send it to a lab for testing. The results are sent to the patient and their doctor. If the results are positive the patient will be referred for a colonoscopy. The other patients will continue to receive their tests every two years.

Dr. Bernard Badley, medical director for the program, told The Chronicle Herald newspaper that the initiative has been positive.

"(We’re) detecting people with early cancers, or people with growths in the colon that could become cancers and that’s exactly the aim of the program," Badley said. "If you detect an early cancer it can be cured, or find something that could develop into cancer and get rid of that, you’ve prevented it."

Colonoscopies are more accurate and thorough than stool screening, but many people are more likely to conduct an at-home stool test and send it to a lab than to attain a colonoscopy. How do you think fecal screenings should balance colonoscopies, if at all? Please leave a comment below.