People over 55 are to be offered thorough screening for bowel cancer in a bid to cut the death toll from the disease, the British government announced yesterday.
Some £60 million is to be ploughed into a project to ensure men can be examined and treated internally for signs of early cancer using fibre optic technology.
The project is one of several announced by the coalition government over the weekend to highlight its plans for tackling cancer.
It will replace efforts to identify bowel cancer by persuading men to send samples for laboratory testing.
The plan was welcomed "warmly" yesterday by Cancer Research UK, which said thousands of lives could be saved, according to its research.
The organisation claims deaths could halve and 10,000 lives saved annually as pre-cancerous growths could be detected and removed. The government says its target is 3,000 lives saved each year.
The screening programme will use a technology called Flexi-scope and pilot projects will begin in the spring.
Chief executive Harpal Kumar said: “Flexi-scope needs to be brought in as soon as possible. Every week of delay will risk scores of lives. Because it will prevent so many cancers, adding this test to the bowel screening programme will spare tens of thousands of families the anxiety and suffering associated with a cancer diagnosis, while also saving the NHS money.
"This procedure offers us a tremendous opportunity to push bowel cancer down the league table of cancer cases in the UK."
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