The Minster Practice, Lichfield

46 people will die today from bowel cancer. It's the second most deadly cancer, affecting men and women equally, and although more common in the over 55s, it can develop at any age.

However, of all the major cancers, it is the most curable if diagnosed early enough.

The most common symptoms are change of bowel habit and rectal bleeding. As these symptoms are common (20% of us experience rectal bleeding every year and one third experience constipation or diarrhoea at some time), most people with these symptoms DO NOT have bowel cancer but it is very important for this to be ruled out by further assessment.

www.beatingbowelcancer.org

Saturday 29th April 2006: Bowel Cancer Screening
The Screening Programme should have started in April but funding has only just been allocated by the Government. The national roll out of the programme should now start in the summer of 2006 and be fully rolled out nationwide by 2009.

News item: Thursday 30th March 2006 Charity accuses ministers over bowel cancer screening delays

Newspapers today report on problems with the government's national bowel cancer screening programme (see news items below). Cancer Research UK has accused the government of a "gross betrayal of trust" as little has been done to prepare for the introduction of the programme, which was promised last August and is due to begin next week. The charity says that none of the home testing kits that are supposed to sent to men and women aged 60-69 have yet been ordered, and the government has so far failed to confirm full funding for the programme. Additionally, according to Cancer Research UK, of the five screening "hubs" that are supposed to be set up around the country, four locations are yet to be decided, and it is now estimating a year delay, which it says would result in the needless loss of life. A Department of Health spokesperson responded saying: "There is absolutely no truth in the rumour that the national programme will be shelved. Funding has been agreed for the programme, which will be rolled out as planned from April 2006." It is estimated that screening would reduce deaths by 16%, equating to 2,560 lives a year.

News item: Wednesday 3rd August 2005: Bowel Cancer Screening

The newspapers today give wide coverage to a new scheme to give two million people in their 60s a postal bowel cancer screening kit. The scheme will be up and running by next April, in the hope that it could save many lives as people will feel less embarrassed to self test for bowel cancer than to go to a clinic for screening. The package received will include a kit for collecting a series of stool samples to be returned for testing. The samples will then be screened for blood in 90 screening centres around England. Trials show that faecal occult blood testing, combined with follow-up tests when required, can cut the number of deaths from bowel cancer by 15%. There are however question marks as to whether the NHS has the extra capacity for the amount of prospective colonoscopy tests that the scheme will generate, currently estimated to be an extra 39,000 on top of the 180,000 the NHS already does a year. However Mike Richards, the National Director for Cancer, believes that this would not be a problem saying: "We expect physicians and surgeons to do most of the colonoscopies, but nurses are also being trained and some are already at work." Cancer charities have welcomed the kit for the disease, which currently kills 16,000 Britons a year.

News item: Tuesday 2nd August 2005: Bowel Cancer Screening
The Government is launching a programme to screen patients for bowel cancer 'by post.' Pilot studies have shown that home screening avoids embarrassment and can cut death rates by 15%. The programme, starting next April, is for men and women aged 60 to 69, and it is hoped that the scheme could save 2,000 lives a year. The programme will aim to screen two million people a year, with screening every two years, at a cost of ₤37.5 million in the first two years. The pilot scheme showed that tests could be carried out to detect blood in the stools, a tell-tale sign of a cancerous lesion in the bowel. People being screened will be asked to post samples to one of five regional laboratories, with results being ready in two days.

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