Screening test could cut bowel cancer risk by a third

A study of men and women aged between 55 and 64 who underwent an examination of the lower colon and rectum showed a 43 per cent cut in the death rate for bowel cancer with the incidence of the disease falling by a third.

The findings of the research, involving 170,432 men and women, and published online in The Lancet journal, were drawn from those patients who underwent sigmoidoscopy, where a camera mounted on a thin, flexible tube is inserted around a third of the way into the bowel.

Most bowel cancers stem from polyps or symptomless growths in the rectum and colon and where these were found they were removed in a safe and pain-free procedure, the researchers said.

Researchers said the test could save thousands of lives every year and spare tens of thousands of people the trauma and suffering of cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Bowel cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK and the second biggest cancer killer after lung cancer, claiming the lives of around 16,000 people a year.

The current screening method for bowel cancer looks for traces of blood in stools and helps to detect the cancer at an early stage.

The results were hailed as a "breakthrough" by Cancer Research UK chief executive Harpal Kumar, who called for the next Government to add the test to the bowel cancer screening programme as a "matter of urgency".

He said: "Cancer Research UK does not often use the word 'breakthrough' but this is one of those rare occasions when I am going to use this word.

"It is extremely rare to see the results of a clinical trial which are quite as compelling as this one."