The NHS’s current approach to colorectal cancer diagnostics places a significant and unnecessary burden on the healthcare system. Colonoscopies are expensive and invasive procedures, with over 80% either normal or identifying no significant disease. This translates into a very high proportion of unnecessary, time-consuming and uncomfortable procedures that consume valuable resources and contribute to a growing backlog of more than 500,000 patients awaiting investigation.
Oricol™ provides a more efficient and scalable solution. It is a simple five-minute test with industry-leading performance in colorectal cancer detection. Any healthcare professional trained in proctoscopy, a skill included in the basic training of most junior clinicians and nurses can administer the test without additional specialist training. This enables Oricol to be delivered widely across community and primary care pathways, improving access to reliable testing and reducing demand on secondary care services.
System-Level Impact
- Financial benefit: A national rollout across appropriate pathways could deliver an estimated £1.2 billion in annual NHS savings. While not all savings reduce the staffing bill directly, resources are redeployed to higher-value care, strengthening overall service delivery.
- Backlog reduction: By filtering out low-yield cases, colonoscopy capacity can be redirected to patients who need it most, helping to reduce waiting lists and speed up diagnosis.
- Earlier, less costly treatment: Colorectal cancer treated at Stage I is significantly less expensive and far more effective than treatment at Stage IV. Shifting diagnosis earlier improves survival rates and lowers long-term costs.
- Workforce efficiency: Community-based triage reduces demand for scarce colonoscopy specialists and facilities, while freeing clinical staff to focus on higher-value interventions.
- Improved patient experience: With no bowel preparation, no sedation and no disruption to daily life, Oricol offers a far more acceptable pathway, encouraging greater uptake of testing. In contrast, colonoscopy typically requires patients to take two full days off work one for bowel preparation and one for the procedure and recovery. This represents a significant loss of productivity for patients and their families, alongside the inconvenience and stress of hospital attendance. Oricol avoids these burdens entirely, making testing easier, faster and more accessible.
Population Benefits
- Symptomatic patients gain faster access to reliable testing in community settings. This ensures that more people with marginal symptoms can be assessed earlier, leading to cancers being diagnosed sooner in the disease pathway.
- Asymptomatic patients benefit from Oricol’s ability to detect advanced adenomas, precancerous lesions more reliably than any other in-vitro diagnostic test worldwide. Early detection enables referral for colonoscopy and removal of these lesions before they progress to cancer.
Diagnosing colorectal cancer early, or before it develops, is the key to reducing mortality. Oricol is not a replacement for colonoscopy, but a qualifier that ensures invasive procedures are used where they add the most value. By reducing unnecessary procedures, releasing NHS capacity and enabling earlier, more effective diagnosis, Oricol delivers a smarter and more sustainable approach to colorectal cancer diagnostics.