First report on bowel cancer screening program

The National Bowel Cancer Screening Program monitoring report 2007, released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), tracks the first year of the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program.

In the first year of the program, which began in August 2006, nearly 450,000 screening kits were sent to people aged 55 and 65 with the aim of reducing mortality from bowel cancer through early detection of bowel cancer and precancerous polyps.

Just over 40% of people who received the kit took up the offer to complete the test, and participation was almost 20% higher amongst 65 year olds than 55 year olds.

Blood in the faeces was detected in 7% of tests completed as part of Phase 1 of the program, and men were 40% more likely to have blood detected than women.

Despite this fact, and the fact that men aged 55-74 years are 58% more likely to develop bowel cancer than women, participation in screening was almost 20% higher in women.

This is the first national screening program inviting men to participate, and men are less likely to screen compared with women, who are more used to it through breast and cervical cancer screening.

Either precancerous polyps or cancers were detected in 63% of the positive results that were further investigated by colonoscopy.