Sorry, I couldn’t resist the headline. A new colorectal cancer screening test called FIT (fecal immunochemical tests) promises greater sensitivity for some types of cancerous tumors but not others. In the never-ending battle to find less expensive, more effective, less intrusive testing options, scientists must often take a step back when they take one ahead.

In this case, the FIT test might successfully be combined with sigmoidoscopy instead of using the pricier colonoscopy. These investigators tested asymptomatic patients simultaneously with FIT and with colonoscopy to get a good comparison. ANyway, no one’s yet thinking of throwing away the old fetal occult blood test FOBT. Read the results here.