The test that can predict bowel cancer

More than 1.5 million people who are most at risk from bowel cancer have ignored a simple, free test that could spot an early symptom of the disease – one of the deadliest cancers but which is treatable in nine out of ten cases. Perhaps they are anxious about the follow-up tests but the latest procedure – a virtual colonoscopy – is pain and anaesthetic-free, as I recently discovered. The NHS launched its nationwide bowel cancer screening programme three years ago in an attempt to cut deaths from 16,000 a year – only prostate and lung cancer kill more men and only breast cancer claims more women. Since June 2006, testing kits have been sent to 3.7million men and women between 60 and 69 – the most vulnerable age group – asking for a stool sample, which will be examined for minute traces of blood, but just 55 per cent of kits were returned. By the end of this year, everyone in the UK should be sent a kit once they reach the age of 60.

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