Calls to improve bowel cancer detection

Experts are calling for the roll-out of improved methods of bowel cancer detection – both in terms of initial screening and the quality of endoscopy, with the aim of providing earlier treatment and better prospects of survival.

Bowel cancer is the second biggest cancer killer in the UK with 16,200 people dying from the disease every year. The charity Bowel Cancer UK points out that nearly everyone diagnosed at the earliest stage will survive bowel cancer, but this drops significantly as the disease develops.1 A third of people (34%) in England who are diagnosed with bowel cancer through screening are diagnosed at stage 1, the earliest and most treatable stage, compared to only six per cent of those who are diagnosed through emergency admission to hospital.1

There is significant room for improvement in the detection of bowel cancer and experts are calling for improvements in screening approaches to improve survival by identifying cancer at an earlier stage and avoiding emergency admissions. In January 2016, the UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC) made a number of recommendations to improve existing screening programmes, including introducing faecal immunochemical testing (FIT), to replace the current first test used in the NHS bowel cancer screening programme. The committee stated that replacing the guiac Faecal Occult Blood (gFOB) test with FIT provides the opportunity to detect and prevent more cancers and is easier to use.2