A modeling study presented at the 2026 American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) Annual Scientific Meeting suggests that Guardant Health’s Shield blood-based colorectal cancer (CRC) screening test could avert more CRC deaths than stool-based tests when real-world screening adherence and follow-up colonoscopy completion are factored into lifetime projections.
Among 1,000 simulated individuals aged 45–75, blood-based screening was projected to result in 679 lifetime colonoscopies and 12 CRC deaths averted, compared with 113 colonoscopies and six deaths averted with fecal immunochemical testing (FIT), and 326 colonoscopies and nine deaths averted with multitarget stool DNA testing. These are modeled projections, not outcomes observed in a head-to-head clinical trial.
A separate implementation study at two rural health clinics in South Carolina reported 99% adherence among patients offered Shield. The study builds on earlier research in Appalachia and highlights the potential of blood-based screening to reach populations facing barriers to conventional screening.