What is the NHS bowel cancer screening programme?

Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK and the second leading cause of cancer deaths. Bowel cancer screening aims to detect bowel cancer at an early stage, in people with no symptoms. This is when treatment is most likely to be effective. Bowel cancer screening can also detect polyps in the bowel. These are not cancers, but may develop into cancers over time. Polyps can be easily removed, reducing a person's future risk of bowel cancer. 

Sir Muir Gray, Programme Director of the UK National Screening Committee, explains that screening for bowel cancer in the UK involves three stages, firstly identifying the people in the population who are most at risk, secondly offering people in that age group a screening test (the Faecal Occult Blood test), and thirdly offering a diagnostic test (such as a colonoscopy) to those who have had an abnormal Faecal Occult Blood test result. 

Sir Muir Gray, Programme Director of the UK National Screening Committee, explains how we identify people who have bowel cancer but who don't have symptoms.

Polyps and bowel cancers sometimes bleed which is why we screen for blood in bowel motions (stools or faeces). A man we talked to about screening pointed out that blood in a motion may be due to something else, such as piles, but that an abnormal Faecal Occult Blood test result needs further investigation. 

The Faecal Occult Blood test detects hidden blood in a person's motion. Blood in the motion indicates that another test is needed, such as a colonoscopy.

Many women understand what is meant by “screening” because they have mammography as part of screening for breast cancer and smear tests as part of screening for cervical cancer.

She describes screening as a form of “sifting” to find people who may need treatment.

Some understood that the purpose of screening was to catch an illness at an early stage, before there were symptoms, but the idea of screening is not familiar to everyone. One woman said that when she first heard about the screening programme she thought of the Big Screen and wondered if she would be filmed. A man thought that the word “screening” sounded a bit technical and preferred to call it a 'check-up'.

He prefers the term “check-up”.

At first she thought that screening might involve a film.

It is known that taking part in bowel cancer screening reduces the chance of dying from bowel cancer by about 16% but it is important to consider the disadvantages as well as the advantages of screening. The screening process is not completely safe, and bowel cancer may be missed during a colonoscopy.

Sir Muir Gray discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of screening.

In England the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme offers screening every two years to all men and women aged 60-69. People did not always understand that everyone in the age group was invited to take part - some thought their name had been drawn at random, or for some other purpose (See 'Initial reaction to the invitation for screening'). Some people wondered why screening is offered only to people in that age group.

Sir Muir Gray explains why people aged between 60 and 69 are offered screening for bowel cancer.

People aged 70 and over can ask to be screened for bowel cancer by calling a Freephone number, 0800 707 6060. A 70-year-old woman heard about the NHS Bowel Screening Programme on the radio and phoned to ask for a screening kit.

She had not been invited to take part in screening for bowel cancer because she was over 69, so she rang a Freephone number and asked to take part.

For more information about the NHS Cancer Screening Programme for bowel cancer phone 0800 707 6060 and ask for the leaflet Bowel cancer: The Facts or visit their website for a copy. 

Last reviewed October 2010.

Last updated October 2010.