Bowel cancer patients diagnosed through screening more likely to survive

Bowel cancer patients diagnosed through screening more likely to survive. Bowel cancer patients whose disease was found through screening have a better chance of beating their disease than those diagnosed after developing symptoms, according to new research by Durham University. The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, also adds to evidence that the test used in bowel screening - which looks for blood in stool samples - is better at finding bowel cancers in men, and in the lower part of the bowel. While the blood test - known as FOBt - has been shown to be effective, it is not flawless. The study found that in people who attended screening nearly a quarter of cancers were diagnosed in between tests - suggesting these tumours were either missed by FOBt or these cancers were particularly fast-growing and developed in the two years between screening tests. The study findings, based on the North East of England, support Cancer Research UK's calls to ensure the bowel screening programmes are as effective as possible. Cancer Research UK suggests this could be done by including a better stool blood test and implementing the Flexi-Scope bowel screening test swiftly, which uses a camera and light at the end of a flexible tube to detect and remove pre-cancerous growths from the lower parts of the bowel.