FORT WORTH, TEX. ? A test being developed at Houston’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center shows promise that genetics can identify the early signs of colon cancer with less of the invasiveness of current tests.

The experimental test, which looks for a genetic mutation in a stool sample, identified 57 percent of 46 patients with early colon cancer changes and didn’t falsely diagnose healthy patients, according to a study published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine.

The test likely won’t be widely available for another five years, said Dr. Bernard Levin, a study author and vice president for cancer prevention at M.D. Anderson. But Levin and other cancer specialists who reviewed the study say it provides a window into how genetics can one day reduce the need for the more intrusive and disliked colonoscopy test.

“If we add another gene to this particular (stool) test, and we are already working on those, we could increase the ability to detect cancer and premalignant colon polyps to as high as 75 percent,” Levin said.

“Therefore, you would be able to narrow down the population that needs colonosocopy significantly.”