With our 2024 research showing an increased awareness that bowel screening helps prevent bowel cancer, we look at how this happens in practice.
BowelScreen can prevent bowel cancer from developing, as well as finding it early. Yet it’s the third most common cancer diagnosed in Ireland.
How most bowel cancers develop
Most bowel cancers start as polyps in the bowel. Polyps are small abnormal growths of tissue. The chance of having polyps increases as we get older. Most of us will not know that we have them because they don’t usually cause symptoms.
Some polyps can develop into cancer over time, usually over a period of about 7 to 10 years.
Prevention – a key aim of bowel screening
Bowel screening can help to find bowel cancer at an earlier stage when it can be easier to treat. However, it’s not just about this.
One of the main aims of bowel screening is to prevent bowel cancer by:
- finding people at risk of bowel cancer through the BowelScreen home-test
- referring those at risk for a colonoscopy
- finding and removing polyps at colonoscopy that could otherwise develop into cancer.
How BowelScreen can help prevent bowel cancer
BowelScreen is for everyone aged 57 to 71. It’s for people who do not have symptoms of bowel cancer. It’s a free test you do at home that’s quick and simple to use. You put a small sample of your poo on a stick and post it back for testing. The test in the laboratory looks for small amounts of blood in your poo sample that you can’t see.
Most people get a normal result. But if a certain amount of blood is found in your sample, we’ll refer you for a follow-up test called a colonoscopy.
A colonoscopy is where we take a close look at the entire bowel using a camera. It helps us to find out what’s causing the bleeding and to find and remove any polyps before they develop into cancer.
Every year, about 3,000 people who do the BowelScreen test have polyps removed from their bowel. These are all potential cancers prevented.
The important bits
As we approach the end of Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, remember, bowel screening is always in season.
- If you’re eligible, make sure to check that you are on the BowelScreen register.
- Request your free home-test kit when you get your invitation letter to take part.
- Do the test at home, at a time that suits you, and post it back.
- If you are invited for a BowelScreen colonoscopy, go - it can help find and remove polyps, preventing bowel cancer before it starts.