National bowel cancer tests getting results

About 5100 of 90,000 Australians who signed up to have a faecal occult blood test have been referred for further testing after returning positive results in the National Bowel Cancer Screening program.

Department of Health and Ageing figures showed that the screening program initially detected at least 44 potentially cancerous adenomas and 29 cancers since the program started last August.

Bowel cancer is one of the most curable types of cancer if detected early but it is still the second most common cause of cancer death in Australia.

The program aims to alert people who may have potentially pre-cancerous polyps in their bowel by detecting small amounts of blood in faeces.

A spokeswoman for the Gastroenterological Society of Australia, Katherine Ellard, hoped that more Australians would take up the testing although “people have a distaste for dealing with their poo”.

Dr Ellard said that a positive result to the faecal occult blood test did not always indicate cancer. “In fact only 2-3% of the positive results have cancer,” she said.