A new blood test for bowel cancer may encourage more Australians to undergo screening for the country's second-biggest cancer killer.
Too many Australians avoid the faecal test because they consider it embarrassing or messy, experts say.
A 2014 report revealed only 40 per cent of Australians over 50 years of age took part in the free tests offered through the national bowel cancer screening program.
Gastroenterologist Graeme Young, a spokesman for the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA), said the number of people taking part in the program was alarmingly low.
The stool test is the most accurate non-invasive screening test, Prof Young said, speaking before his RCPA conference presentation in Melbourne on Saturday.
But he acknowledged the "behavioural barriers" associated with the faecal test.
New molecular tests might prove to be a useful alternative for those who refused to take the stool test, he said.
However, "they are not yet sufficiently well evaluated or configured for us to say we can stop using the faecal test".
"New" molecular tests had been in the pipeline for about 15 years, Prof Young said.
"We are quite possibly five years away before we'd have a blood test in the national screening program," Prof Young said.
"But within the year the option of the blood test is likely to be available through the GP."
Both tests differed in cost and effectiveness, he said.
The stool test costs between $10 to $20 and the molecular test is about $100.
"And the molecular test is not good at detecting the pre-cancerous polyps, whereas the stool test is quite good at testing the pre-cancerous polyps," Prof Young said.
"Both the detection of the pre-cancerous polyps and the price issue need to be sorted out before the molecular test can be widely used."
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