NHS bowel cancer screening programme

A Strategy for Cancer (January 2011) detailed the Department of Health’s commitment to invest £60 million between 2011 and 2015 to incorporate flexible sigmoidoscopy (FS) into the current bowel screening programme.

FS, a complementary bowel screening methodology to the current faecal occult blood test, could potentially save 3000 lives on an annual basis.

Pilot trials are due to begin in 2012/13 and aim to achieve 30% coverage by the end of 2013/14, 60% by the end of 2014/15, with full roll-out in 2016.

Evidence, published in The Lancet in 2010, shows that men and women, aged 55-64, attending a one-off FS screening test for bowel cancer, could reduce their incidence of the disease by 33% (23% on a population basis).

Participation in the FS pilot by local screening programmes is voluntary. At present, the four clustered Strategic Health Authorities can bid for their local bowel cancer centre to be a FS pilot and first wave site.

Click here for more details on the pilot and the bidding process.