Screening improves bowel cancer survival

The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, also adds to evidence that the test used in bowel screening – which looks for blood in stool samples – is better at finding bowel cancers in men, and in the lower part of the bowel. While the blood test – known as FOBt – has been shown to be effective, it is not flawless. The study found that in people who attended screening nearly a quarter of cancers were diagnosed in between tests – suggesting these tumours were either missed by FOBt or these cancers were particularly fast-growing and developed in the two years between screening tests. The study findings support Cancer Research UK’s calls to ensure the bowel screening programmes are as effective as possible. This could be done by including a better stool blood test and implementing the Flexi-Scope bowel screening test swiftly. Using data from the Northern Colorectal Cancer Audit Group in north-east England, researchers looked at more than 1,300 bowel cancers diagnosed between April 2007 and March 2010. The results show that nearly 40% of all screen-detected cancers are at an early stage with an improved survival rate compared to cancers found in patients who did not attend screening. Cancer Research UK figures show that when bowel cancer is found at the earliest stage, more than 90% of people survive their disease at least five years. Dr Michael Gill, lead author of the study based at the Wansbeck General Hospital in Northumberland and Durham University, said: “Compared to the trials which led to the introduction of the national bowel screening programme, our research shows that the proportion of bowel cancers detected through screening has improved with the roll-out of national screening. However, too many bowel cancers are slipping through the net. We need to understand why the present blood test is failing to pick up cancers in certain parts of the bowel, and in women.”