Table 3.
Characteristics of guaiac, immunochemical, and miRNA-based FOBTs
| Guaiac based |
FIT | miRNA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Analyte | Heme | Globin | Erythrocyte-specific miRNAs |
| Quantification | No | Yes | Yes |
| Assay dynamic range | N/A | Higha | Higha |
| Assay platform | Colorimetric | Immunochemistry | RT-qPCR |
| Human-specific | No | Yes | Yes |
| Dietary restriction | Yes | No | No |
| Assay normalization | N/A | N/A | Yes |
| Storage buffer | N/A | Protein stabilizing | Nucleic acid stabilizing |
| Material costs | Low | Moderate | Moderate |
| Compatibility with stool DNA test | N/A | Requires separate stool sampling and assay platform | Sampled from same buffer, same assay platform |
a
FIT and miRNA markers demonstrated linearity in assaying 1800–36,000 erythrocytes per µL stool homogenate (see “Results”)