New research led by the University of South Australia shows just how effective bowel cancer screening is in helping to reduce the number of bowel cancer deaths by up to 45%.
The study found bowel (or colorectal) cancer kills almost 6,000 people in Australia each year and 700,000 worldwide, but this number would be much higher without pre-diagnostic colonoscopies.
Data from 12,906 bowel cancer patients indicate that faecal occult blood testing (FOBT) with a follow-up colonoscopy plays a key role in catching the disease early, before symptoms appear.
Researchers from UniSA’s Cancer Epidemiology and Population Health found that having one pre-diagnostic colonoscopy was associated with a 17% reduction in cancer deaths; a 27% reduction with two pre-diagnostic colonoscopy procedures and 45% for three or more.
But currently, just 39% of us eligible Australians undertake a FOBT, which is predicted to prevent 92,000 cancer cases in the next 20 years.
The Cancer Council estimates that if these rates were to increase to 69%, another 24,300 bowel cancer deaths would be prevented.
Time to bite the bullet and get that test done!
