Key messages for bowel cancer
Around 1 in 20 people will get bowel cancer. Of those who get the disease, nine out of ten people will survive if it is caught early.
What is bowel cancer?
- Bowel cancer is a disease of the large bowel (made up of the colon and rectum). It is also sometimes called colorectal or colon cancer.
- Every year there are around 36,000 cases of bowel cancer in the UK, and around 16,500 people will die from the disease.
- Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer and the second most common cause of cancer death in the UK.
- Men and women can get bowel cancer, but men tend to get it at a younger age.
- Early diagnosis of bowel cancer can save lives.
What causes bowel cancer?
- Experts do not know precisely what causes bowel cancer.
- You may be more at risk if several close members of your family have had bowel cancer.
- Additional factors such as a poor diet and an inactive lifestyle may increase your chances of developing bowel cancer.
- Your risk of bowel cancer increases with age but it can affect younger people too.
How can I improve my lifestyle to reduce my risk of developing bowel cancer?
- Get to know your normal bowel habit so that you can recognise any changes.
- Eat a healthy diet, including at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, wholegrain foods, fish, less saturated fat (found in cakes and pastries, for example) and no more than 80g a day of red and processed meat, such as bacon and ham.
- Do not drink more than the recommended daily alcohol limits of 3-4 units for men and 2-3 units for women.
- Do regular exercise and try to keep a healthy weight.
- Give up smoking. Help and support are available free on the NHS.
What are the signs and symptoms of bowel cancer?
Symptoms may vary but include:
- a persistent change in normal bowel habit, such as going to the toilet more often and diarrhoea, especially if you are also bleeding from your back passage
- bleeding from the back passage without any reason, particularly if you are over the age of 50
- a lump in your tummy or a lump in your back passage felt by your doctor
- unexplained iron deficiency in men or in women after the menopause
- unexplained extreme tiredness
If you have any of these symptoms for four weeks or more, see your GP. Most of these symptoms will not be due to cancer.
The NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme
Not all bowel cancer patients will have symptoms, and bowel cancer can be present a long time before any symptoms appear. If bowel cancer is detected before any symptoms appear, it is much easier to treat and there is a better chance of surviving the disease. It is, therefore, very important to do your bowel cancer screening test when you are sent one as part of the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme. The programme covers the whole of England.
Over 8 out of 10 bowel cancers occur in people aged over 60. The national screening programme involves sending men and women aged 60 to 69 a testing kit (known as a Faecal Occult Blood test or FOBt) to do at home. The kits are then sent off to a laboratory to look for hidden (occult) blood in the stools, which could indicate bowel cancer.
Two out of 100 people who take the test have a positive result and are invited to go for further investigations, such as a colonoscopy at a local screening centre. Research has shown that screening can cut the death rate from bowel cancer by 16%. The programme will be extended to men and women aged 70 to 75 from 2010.
Make sure you complete the kit when you are sent one. If you are aged over 70, you can request a kit to be sent to you from your local screening centre. If you decide to do a test, plan a time to do it. It is quite easy to do and may save your life.
The above information was produced with thanks to and in collaboration with:
Bowel Cancer UK
The Department of Health
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust
Imperial College London
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, Colorectal Cancer Unit
Lynn's Bowel Cancer Campaign
University of Oxford Cancer Epidemiology Unit
Whittington NHS Trust
