Bowel cancer screening
About one in 20 people in the UK will develop bowel cancer during their lifetime. It is the third most common cancer in the UK, and the second leading cause of cancer deaths, with over 16,000 people dying from it each year.
The NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme aims to detect bowel cancer at an early stage, when treatment is more likely to be effective. Regular bowel cancer screening has been shown to reduce the risk of dying from bowel cancer by 16%.
Am I eligible? Men and women aged 60 to 69 (50 to 74 in Scotland and Wales) will automatically be invited for screening every two years. The majority of people diagnosed with colon cancer are aged over 60. People aged 70 and over can request screening every two years, but aren’t automatically invited.
What does it involve? You’ll be sent a ‘faecal occult blood test’ to carry out at home and return by post. The kits are then sent off to a laboratory to be checked for hidden (occult) blood in the stools, which could mean bowel cancer.
The test involves smearing tiny samples from three stools (bowel motions) on to a special card. You then seal the test and return it to the screening centre.
You’ll be sent a letter when your results have been processed. This will usually say your sample was normal. If the result is unclear, you'll be asked to complete another test kit. If your result is abnormal, you'll be invited for further investigation.
This will usually be a colonoscopy, a procedure where a colonoscope (a thin flexible tube with a tiny camera on the end) is passed into your rectum and guided around the large bowel, so doctors can view your bowel lining. Only around two in every 100 people who are screened will have an abnormal result and are advised to consider a colonoscopy.