A recent study published in the International Journal of Cancer (Heisser et al., 2025) highlights SENTiFIT-FOB Gold by Sentinel Diagnostics as a reference test in an innovative approach to colorectal cancer screening.
A new way to make screening more effective
Colorectal cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Although colonoscopy remains the diagnostic gold standard, not all individuals at risk undergo the procedure due to its invasive nature.
For this reason, researchers from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) developed an innovative model called the “gateopener” approach, which combines a low-threshold fecal immunochemical test (FIT) with an invitation to colonoscopy only for individuals who test positive.
SENTiFIT-FOB Gold at the core of the study
In the study, the authors used SENTiFIT-FOB Gold (Sentinel Diagnostics, Milan, Italy) as the “gateopener” test. Thanks to its high sensitivity and reliability, the test was evaluated at various hemoglobin cut-offs (3–10 µg Hb/g), showing that lower thresholds improve the ability to identify individuals at higher risk of developing colorectal cancer.
Key findings
- The gateopener approach based on SENTiFIT-FOB Gold allowed researchers to prevent up to 72% more colorectal cancer cases and to more than double the number of deaths avoided compared with conventional colonoscopy screening.
- Compared with biennial FIT screening, it achieved up to 163% more prevented cases and over 20% more prevented deaths, while maintaining an efficient use of colonoscopy resources.
- The study confirms SENTiFIT-FOB Gold as a reliable and sensitive test suitable for large-scale colorectal cancer prevention strategies.
Conclusion
The results of this research confirm that SENTiFIT-FOB Gold can significantly enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of colorectal cancer screening programs by directing colonoscopy resources toward individuals at higher risk.
Scientific reference:
Heisser T., Cardoso R., Niedermaier T., Hoffmeister M., Brenner H. (2025). Optimizing colonoscopy-based colorectal cancer screening by low-barrier, low-threshold pretesting. International Journal of Cancer. DOI: 10.1002/ijc.70187