BOWEL CANCER TEST WOULD CUT DEATHS / THE FINANCIAL TIMES ( VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED READING )

Bowel cancer test would cut deaths

By Joseph Milton

Published: April 28 2010 02:52

A one-off five-minute procedure reduces deaths from bowel cancer by 43 per cent and decreases the incidence of the disease by a third.

If introduced nationally, it would save at least 3,000 lives every year, and save the National Health Service £28 ($43) for every person screened by removing the need for treatment, according to a study published on Wednesday in the Lancet.

Professor Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, which funded the study in conjunction with the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research, said the results represented “one of the most important developments in cancer research in years”, adding that the tests “will have a really big impact on cancer outcomes”.

About one in 20 people in the UK develop bowel cancer, and more than 16,000 Britons die of the disease annually. Among cancers, it is the second biggest killer after lung cancer.

The study is the culmination of a 16-year clinical trial of flexible stigmoidoscopy examinations. More than 170,000 participants aged between 55 and 64 – the group with the highest risk of developing bowel cancer – took part, 40,674 of whom underwent a single “flexi-scope” test. Participants were then followed for 11 years to see if they developed cancer.

The research was carried out by researchers from Imperial College London, University College London, Queen Mary University of London, the University of East Anglia, Oxford university and St Mark’s Hospital, in Middlesex.

The flexi-scope consists of a thin, flexible tube with a camera and a cutting tool at the end. Specially trained staff use the camera to spot polyps – pre-cancerous growths – in the lower part of the bowel, where more than half of all colorectal cancers are found. These can then be safely removed using the cutting tool.

The procedure is quick, painless and does not require painkillers or anaesthetics. This is the first evidence that removing polyps prevents cancer.

Professor Wendy Atkin of Imperial College, who led the study, said: “Incidence of colorectal cancer has remained exactly the same for four decades. This intervention would make it decrease – you would actually see it in the population.”

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010.