The new national cancer plan must prioritise the needs of bowel cancer patients
Bowel cancer screening programme specimen tubes | Image by: SciTech Image/James King-Holmes / Alamy Stock Photo
3 min read
We must not waste this opportunity to tackle the UK’s second biggest cancer killer
Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK and the second biggest cancer killer. I know firsthand the impact of this disease having had personal experience of family and friends living with and fighting bowel cancer.
Sadly, over 16,800 people lose their lives to the disease each year in the UK. But bowel cancer is curable and treatable if caught early enough. In fact, more than nine in 10 patients will survive if diagnosed at stage 1 compared to just one in 10 diagnosed at stage 4.
Knowing how important early diagnosis of bowel cancer is to survival, it is concerning to see that recent analysis from Bowel Cancer UK shows that only 39 per cent of bowel cancer patients being diagnosed at stage 1 and 2, falling behind other cancers and nowhere near the NHS long-term plan ambition to diagnose 75 per cent of cancers at stage 1 and 2 by 2028.
One of the best ways to detect the disease at an early stage is through the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme and, in some cases, it can even prevent bowel cancer from developing. Wales have recently been leading the way in improving their screening programme, and this year achieved the roll out to expand screening to people aged 50. But this isn’t the only change Public Health Wales has made. Over the last four years, it has improved the effectiveness of bowel screening by making the test more sensitive, reducing the sensitivity threshold from 150ug/mg to 80ug/mg and running a public campaign to encourage more people to take part. This will help detect more bowel cancers at an earlier stage and save more lives.
As chair of the former All-Party Parliamentary Group on Bowel Cancer, I had been working with the bowel cancer community to ensure the UK government committed to similar progress. The good news is that there is now a real opportunity to make this a reality with the recent announcement of a new national cancer plan. I want to see a plan that prioritises the specific needs of bowel cancer patients and puts in place measures that we know will have a transformative impact on our ability to diagnose the disease earlier when it is curable and treatable.
NHS England has expanded this life-saving programme to millions more people since 2021 and is set to routine screening from 50 years of age from April 2025. Yet they currently screen at a sensitivity threshold of 120ug/mg way above the 20ug/mg threshold recommended by the UK National Screening Committee. And above its Scottish and Welsh neighbours. The new cancer plan must set out a timetable and plan on how to offer the best public health programme.
To do this we need to address capacity shortages in endoscopy and pathology services as an optimal screening programme will mean more people will require follow up tests to diagnose bowel cancer. Currently only 60 per cent of bowel cancer patients receive a diagnosis or have cancer ruled out within 28 days of being referred from national screening – way below other national screening programmes such as breast cancer which sits at 82 per cent.
I know how devastating a diagnosis of bowel cancer can be but getting that diagnosis earlier really could be a matter of life and death. The government’s new national cancer plan is an opportunity to confront the UK’s second biggest cancer killer and must not be wasted.
Ben Lake is Plaid Cymru MP for Ceredigion Preseli and chair of the former Bowel Cancer APPG
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