Download Key knowledge points: Bowel cancer screening

Bowel cancer - key knowledge points on screening
For general practitioners
Benefits of screening
Current screening participation rate
Bowel cancer screening by faecal occult blood testing
(FOBT) reduces deaths from bowel cancer through
early detection.
At present, the National Bowel Cancer Screening
Program (NBCSP) offers free FOBTs at 50, 55, 60, 65,
70 and 74 years of age. Biennial screening for all
people aged 50-74 will be fully implemented by the
NBSCP by 2020. In NSW current screening
participation rate is low, with 33% of people invited to
the NBCSP completing the test.
Bowel cancer, mortality, by extent of disease at diagnosis, NSW, 2010
10
50%
Deaths per 100,000
8
9.07
36%
33
NSW NBCSP screening
participation rate
7.09
6
Notes:
• Source: NSW
Cancer Registry
• Mortality has
been
age-standardised
to the Australian
2001 standard
population.
• 'Unknown' extent
of disease is not
shown.
4
2
0
2.58
Localised
Regionalised
%
Distant
Extent of disease at diagnosis
Mortality increases with more advanced disease.
Compared with localised disease, the risk of death is
2.7 times higher in regionalised disease and 3.5 times
higher in distant disease.
However, only 31% of bowel cancers in NSW
are diagnosed at the localised stage.*
Population screening by FOBT can:
Bowel screening participation rate is based on the proportion of the eligible
population invited to the NBCSP from July 2013 to June 2014, who returned a
completed faecal occult blood test (FOBT). Source: NBCSP.
If bowel screening participation rates increased
to 60% in NSW and across Australia, up to
 Increase the proportion of bowel cancers
diagnosed at the localised stage.
 Prevent bowel cancer by detecting
pre-cancerous lesions.
90,000
lives could be saved from bowel cancer
over the next 40 years.1
Click on the links below for more information on:
The NBCSP Role of GPs in the NBCSP Clinical guidelines
Working together to lessen the impact of cancer
Practice tips
safe
non-invasive
FOBT is a
and
test that people can easily
self-administer
92
%
of people state they would
be more likely to participate in
bowel screening if recommended
by their doctor.†
Ensure all
eligible people
are screened
appropriately.
* Based on NSW incidence 2010
† Based on a Newspoll telephone survey of 667 NSW residents aged 18+
in May 2015.
1. Cenin DR, St John J, Slevin T et al. Optimising the expansion of the
National Bowel Cancer Screening Program. Med J Aust 2014;201:456-61.
cancerinstitute.org.au/bowel-cancer