Screening - Bowel Cancer
The whole of Hampshire is now covered by the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme which offers screening to men and women aged between 60 and 69 years - the highest risk age group. If you are a man or women in this age group and you are registered with a GP then you will be offered screening every two years. However, it is a new programme and so some people won’t receive their first invitation until the programme has been running nearly two years (roll out will continue until September 2010).
The fact is that more than 35,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer (also known as colon, rectal or colorectal cancer) in the UK every year and over 16,000 will die from the disease. However, despite these figures, bowel cancer is highly treatable if caught early and if it is detected early through screening then the chances of survival are almost 90%.
The screening programme uses a simple ‘self-testing’ kit which is sent to people homes. For more information on bowel cancer and how self-testing works visit the NHS Cancer Screening website.
The most common symptoms of bowel cancer are:
- a persistent change in bowel habit, especially needing to go to the toilet more often or having diarrhoea for several weeks
- bleeding from the back passage or blood in the bowel motion
- severe abdominal pain
- a lump in the abdomen
- unexplained tiredness or weight loss
These symptoms do not necessarily indicate bowel cancer, but if you have one or more of these for four to six weeks then you should see your GP.
Return to the main Screening page
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