First results from the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program in the United Kingdom found significantly more colorectal cancers in early, curable stages than in the years before the program began.

Nearly half of the cancers found during screening were stage I (Dukes A), while previously only 1 in 10 were diagnosed at that earliest stage.

However, in another analysis of the pilot NHS NBCSP efforts, a significant percentage of patients who had cancer found on screening, believed to be without symptoms of colon or rectal cancer, recognized and reported symptoms when asked before their follow-up colonoscopies. Read the rest of this entry »

March is over here in the United States, but in the United Kingdom, April is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM).

Bowel Cancer UK established April as Bowel Cancer Awareness Month ten years ago.  This year Bowel Cancer UK health promotion officers will be going to workplaces and community centers to raise awareness of colorectal cancer symptoms, encourage early detection, and tell people how to get screened.  Their 140 person team will be running in the London Marathon and a Bringing Up the Rear Walk is scheduled for April 18th in Hyde Park.

Bowel Cancer UK will also be launching Check It, a program to raise the public profile of bowel cancer and reduce the number of deaths from the disease. Read the rest of this entry »

For the month of March, which is Colon Cancer Awareness Month, I want to review the early symptoms of colon cancer so we can prevent this disease more successfully. Colon cancer is one of the few cancer you can prevent by doing colonoscopies.

The general recommendation is to have a baseline colonoscopy at 50 years and then repeat it every 5 to 10 years, which reflects that polyps or colon cancer development takes a long time. This leaves a window of opportunity to do the screening, remove polyps, and prevent colon cancer. Read the rest of this entry »