Alarm as pensioners shun bowel screening
Thursday April 17th, 2014
Bowel cancer screening programmes across England are having dramatically different success rates, campaigners claimed yesterday.
In one
district of west London, screening is reaching just 42% of those invited
to take part, according to Beating Bowel Cancer.
This compares with Dorset, which has the highest up-take of screening in the country - at 66% of those invited.
The programme requires people over the age of 60 to return personal samples in the post.
The charity said that in four years the programme had found 7,065 people with cancer - and led to another 40,000 people undergoing procedures to have pre-cancerous growths removed.
Across England, some 58% of those invited have taken part.
Charity chief executive Mark Flannagan said: “We must do better than this; we simply can’t have the situation where outcomes depend on where you live. These statistics show unacceptable variations across the country that can’t be explained.
"We know that bowel cancer screening saves lives by leading to earlier diagnosis, yet in some areas fewer than half of those eligible are actually taking it up.
“The majority of people are still being diagnosed with bowel cancer too late when it’s more advanced and difficult to treat."
Public Health England backed the charity's call for the public to take part in screening.
The organisation said it is planning to extend a programme offered to people at the age of 55 called bowel scope screening. Some 37% of planned screening centres are in operation.
Professor Julietta Patnick, director of the NHS Cancer Screening Programmes said: "We are pleased to support Bowel Cancer Awareness Month and the ’Lift the Lid’ campaign, and to highlight the importance of bowel cancer screening.
" The risk of bowel cancer increases with age, with over 80% of bowel cancers arising in people who are 60 or over. That is why bowel cancer screening is so crucial, as it can detect bowel cancer at an early stage in people with no symptoms, when treatment is likely to be more effective."
Tags: Cancer | Elderly Health | Gastroenterology | NHS | UK News
Printer friendly page