Beacon Biomedical commercially released its BeScreened Colorectal Cancer (CRC) test, which is designed to improve access and affordability to CRC screening as a blood draw instead of a fecal collection.
BeScreened seeks to improve the early detection of CRC, significantly improving survival rates and dramatically reducing the cost of treatment, the company says.
“As a health-conscious individual with no history of cancer in my family and a decade of experience as an executive in the lab industry, I was devastated to learn that I had late-stage colon cancer,” says Jason McGrath, president of BeScreened and a survivor of colon cancer. “I don’t want others go through the unnecessary turmoil of chemotherapy and complex surgeries that I did because I missed it in the early stages. As a CRC survivor, I was lucky. Most people in my situation are not.”
Colorectal Cancer is the second deadliest and second most costly cancer in the United States, according to the company. More than 150,000 American are newly diagnosed with colon cancer every year and greater than 50,000 Americans die from the disease annually. Despite these alarming statistics, of the 131 million men and women in the U.S. who are eligible each year for CRC screening, a staggering 45 million do not participate.
BeScreened is a laboratory developed test (LDT) that was developed for average risk men and women aged 45 and older who prefer blood-based testing to other screening modalities such as fecal-based tests and colonoscopy.
Noncompliant screeners account for 65% of CRC deaths and 75% of CRC treatment costs—$18BN annually as well as $20BN in lost productivity. Research shows that 84% of the population prefers blood testing to fecal testing, meaning BeScreened can significantly improve compliance, and ultimately save lives and tremendous costs, according to the company.
“Too many lives are lost every year to colorectal cancer. The real tragedy is the majority of these deaths are preventable as they can be directly attributed to non-compliance with existing screening methods,” says Don Weber, founder & CEO of Beacon Biomedical. “As a simple, easy to adopt, and highly accurate blood-based test for CRC screening, BeScreened was developed to address this very problem.”
