Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer after non-melanoma skin cancer (1) and prostate cancer, with one in 12 Australians developing bowel cancer by the age of 85. It is the second most common cause of cancer-related death in Australia, after lung cancer.
The good news is that if bowel cancer is detected and treated at the earliest stage, the cure rate is around 90%. Several tests are being used in Australia to screen for bowel cancer and the Federal Government had recently introduced a National Bowel Cancer Screening program.
The bad news is that the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program is only inviting people turning 50, 55 and 65 to take a one-off faecal occult blood test to check for early signs of the disease, rather than screening all Australians aged 50 and over every two years, as recommended by the National Health and Medical Research Council. So Cancer Council is asking all Australians to call on their local federal MP to support the expansion and full implementation of the program. Information about our bowel cancer screening campaign is available at Get Behind Bowel Screening.
The new Bowel Cancer Screening chapter of our National Cancer Prevention Policy provides comprehensive information on bowel cancer screening in Australia, including statistical data, the evidence base, policy context and priorities.
(1) Non-melanoma skin cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer according to surveys, however there is no reporting of actual cases to cancer registries