“A bowel cancer screening programme in England is on course to cut deaths by a sixth,” the BBC has reported. The story goes on to say, however, that there is concern “that the programme misses tumours in certain parts of the colon”.
This story is based on analysis of the first round of England’s Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, which was introduced in 2006. Screening programmes are designed to test for signs of a disease among people without symptoms. They can often detect diseases early, allowing treatment to be given at a stage when it is more likely to be effective at improving outcomes and lowering the risk of death. The screening programme invites people between the ages of 60 and 69 to participate, by giving them home faeces sampling kits that can be posted to a lab to check for traces of blood. Those who screen positive at this stage are then invited to undergo further diagnostic tests.
To date, the programme has invited about 2 million people to participate, with around half accepting and returning a sample. The results of the analysis suggest that if the early results are maintained, the screening programme will achieve the intended 16% reduction in overall bowel cancerdeaths.
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