Wellbeing

The importance of bowel cancer screening

How a simple test can help detect bowel cancer, one of the most preventable forms of cancer.

Written by Graham Newstead AM

Bowel cancer is one of the most common and preventable cancers yet many people are unaware of a simple and effective test that can detect the earliest signs of the disease.

Bleeding from the bowel is one of the most important signs of possible bowel cancer but you don’t need to wait for visible symptoms when a Faecal Occult Blood (FOB) test can detect very small amounts of blood before you can.

BowelScreen Australia FOB tests are simple and very effective. The sample can be collected in the privacy of your own home. There’s no mess, no fuss. You don’t have to go on any special diet or change medications.

This February – Let’s Beat Bowel Cancer and Bowel Cancer Australia are joining forces to promote FOBruary. If you’re aged 50 and over, do not have any symptoms or a family history of bowel cancer, take the FOB Test this FOBruary.

Australia has one of the highest rates of bowel cancer in the world – one in 12 Australians will develop bowel cancer in their lifetime and it claims the lives of 77 Australians every week, more than breast or prostate cancer.

Bowel cancer screening every one to two years can reduce bowel cancer deaths by up to 33 per cent, so reduce your risk by taking the FOB test.

**Visit *bowelcanceraustralia.org for more information.***

Written by Graham Newstead AM

Associate Professor Graham Newstead is Head of the Colorectal Unit at the Prince of Wales Private Hospital. He is Chairman of the International Council of Coloproctology, the Bowel Cancer Foundation within Bowel Cancer Australia and the Medical Advisory Council of the Prince of Wales Private Hospital. He was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2005 for service to medicine in the field of colorectal surgery.

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