National Bowel Cancer Screening Program - What it means for you

Wednesday 14 September, 2011

An explanation of the National Bowel Cancer Screening program, including who is screened, how the screening tests work and how to ensure you participate. 

 

Transcript: 

Jan Farrelly (Program participant and bowel cancer survivor): My life had changed dramatically but it's ok now having done the test and finding out that I did have cancer. But now it's all good.

John Murphy (Program participant): I think the biggest change for me is it's made me so aware that I could have a pre-cancerous polyp or bowel cancer and have no sign that I had it. For me that was quite a frightening realisation.

Jan Farrelly: I don't know what my life would have been, had I not done the test.

The National Bowel Cancer Screening Program - What it Means for You

Professor James St John (Gastroenterologist, Senior Honorary Associate of Cancer Council Victoria): The screening program is important because bowel cancer is so common. Each week in this country, on average, 80 Australians will die. And, in fact, Australia and new Zealand have the highest rates for bowel cancer in the whole world.

Dr Graeme Jones (General Practitioner and bowel cancer survivor): Colorectal cancer or bowel cancer becomes more common the older people get and at 50 people reach the stage where it happens commonly enough to warrant screening.

Text overlay:

  • Bowel cancers often develop without any symptoms
  • Cancer Council Recommends screening every 2 years from the age of 50
  • 90% of bowel cancers can be cured if found early.

Dr Graeme Jones: The other big issue with it is that we can either pick up lesions that can lead onto a cancer at a later stage, or pick up very early cancers at a stage when they're curable.

Bowel cancer screening saves lives

Dr Graeme Jones: My circumstances when I decided to take the test, were I got sent the kit a couple of weeks after my 65th birthday. As GP I felt that this was a really important test to do anyway, but had had a colleague who'd died of bowel cancer in his 50s not long before that so I did the test within a few days of it arriving.

Jan Farrelly (Program participant and bowel cancer survivor): Well, I saw the specialist and I had a colonoscopy and he said that I needed to have an operation. It was a removal of part of the bowel, and when they sent it away to do a biopsy they found that there was cancer there and it had gone through the bowel into the lymph nodes, which meant I did need to have chemo.

John Murphy (Program participant): My GP sent me to a specialist to have a colonoscopy. I then had to return to the specialist because after the colonoscopy he told me that I'd had three very large polyps removed. When I returned to his office to find out the results of the examination of them, his words to me were ‘You're a very lucky man'. I was a bit surprised and taken aback and asked ‘Why do you say that?' and he said, ‘Well, the polyps I removed were right on the verge of becoming cancerous.'

Screening for bowel cancer at home

Dr Graeme Jones (to patient): So we need to talk about bowel cancer screening. And this kit that you will shortly get in the mail, I'll run you through the kit and what it actually contains. Firstly there is the instructions, which are very clear and it also contains a pictorial element to it so these make it really easy to work out what to do.

Firstly you empty your bladder. Then you need to place one of these mats in the toilet. So this goes into the toilet bowl and sits on the water. After you've done that you need to collect a sample with one of these little samplers here. You need two specimens from successive bowel motions.

Once you've used your bowel, just scraping this across the surface of the motion, back and forth. The specimen then gets placed into this plastic container and that just self seals. That's then placed into one of these bottles, and when you have taken the second sample as well, that can just go into this envelope and be mailed off.

Dr Graeme Jones (to camera): I'm occasionally asked by patients, how reliable the tests are. And I think it's important patients realise that a negative test doesn't totally exclude a cancer, so that if they're having symptoms of changes in bowel habit or passing mucus or passing blood or anaemia, that they get that investigated properly.

Text overlay: Who is eligible? Men and women turning 50, 55 or 65 years of age.

John Murphy (Program participant): For me it's really just made such a difference to my life. If I hadn't had that bowel screening kit and returned it I could be seriously ill with a life threatening cancer.

Jan Farrelly: Every day is a gift now, definitely, yes. You've just got to be thankful for what you've got now because as I said, there were no symptoms and without the test who knows what could have happened to me.

Text overlay: How to get an FOBT: If you are aged 50 and over and not yet eligible for the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program, ask your doctor about an FOBT, order an FOBT from Cancer Council Victoria (call 13 11 20) or ask your pharmacist if they stock FOBTs, or contact your private health insurance provider.

For more information about the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program see

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Cancer Council Helpline 13 11 20