New bowel cancer test wins public approval

A patient trial involving the new bowel cancer test that will be used in future UK screening initiatives has seen the device win significant levels of user satisfaction.

Cancer Research UK scientists recently asked 1,020 people undergoing a flexible sigmoidoscopy test about any side-effects they experienced and their contentment with the procedure as part of a study that has been published in the Journal of Medical Screening.

It revealed that 97.9 percent of those using the test were glad to have received it, while 97.3 percent said they would encourage a friend to undergo the procedure.

The test, which uses a small camera on a thin flexible plastic tube to find small growths or polyps inside the bowel, will be offered to all 55-year-olds in England starting this year.

Dr Katie Robb, a Cancer Research UK psychologist and lead study author from the University of Glasgow, said: "The overwhelmingly positive response in our study suggests that people who are invited to have the new test from March this year are likely to have a similarly favourable experience."

Bowel cancer affects more than 36,500 people in the UK every year and is the second most common cancer in women, as well as being the third most common among men.