Bowel Cancer Screening Slashes Emergency Admissions

Michelle MacGillivray, Practice Support 13 December 07

Bowel cancer screening programs halve the number of emergency admissions for colorectal cancer, and lead to a dramatic reduction in the number of patients dying after emergency surgery, a UK study suggests.

In the year before a regional faecal occult blood test program began in the UK for adults aged 50-59, just under 30% of colorectal cancer patients had to be admitted as an emergency case, but this had fallen to just under 16% by the fifth year of the program. Almost 50% of patients died within 30 days of surgery for colorectal cancers in the year before the program began, but this had fallen to 13% by the fifth year of the program.

In the Australian national bowel cancer screening program, initial results suggest about 156,000 Australians took part in the first stage of the national faecal occult blood test-based screening program, returning 11,000 positive tests and leading to the diagnosis of more than 100 suspected cancers.

Professor Graeme Young, professor of gastroenterology at Flinders University in Adelaide, said the UK results pointed towards a clear trend to less emergency surgery with fewer complications to the patient. Professor Young also encouraged GPs to urge their patients to take bowel-screening tests.

"It's also vital that when a patient comes in with a positive result that he or she is sent off immediately for a colonoscopy. There's some evidence GPs are instead doing a second screening test on the patient, which is clearly not appropriate."

Source: Australian Doctor, 7/12/07, p2

If your practice requires on onsite visit to learn more about the National Bowel Cancer Screening program please call Michelle MacGillivray on 5331 6303 or enable javascript to see this email address (how?).

This article is available online at http://bddgp.org.au/article/2007/12/nbcsp

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