A DUBLIN hospital has launched an innovative screening programme which offers the public an opportunity to take part in the detection of a commonly occurring form of cancer.
Staff at Tallaght hospital hope their free bowel cancer screening programme will assist in the early diagnosis and treatment of the curable illness, which kills some 900 people in Ireland each year.
The programme began about two months ago and is attempting to screen 10,000 people aged 50-74 in the Tallaght area over the next 18 months. Tallaght hospital is the first in Ireland to offer the service.
Bowel cancer is the second-most common fatal cancer among men and women in Ireland and, if the screening process is a success, the Tallaght team hopes the programme will be introduced at a national level.
"The screening programme involves checking people for symptoms of bowel cancer in an attempt to identify the disease at a curable stage," programme nurse Nikki Lee said.
"We would expect 5 per cent of the samples we receive to be positive and we will be holding a Saturday morning clinic for those with positive results who require further investigation via colonoscopy."
People in the areas surrounding Tallaght hospital have been contacted in relation to the programme and those who show an interest will be sent a faecal immunological blood test kit.
Participants in the programme will be able to conduct the test, which involves placing stool samples from two consecutive days in a hygienic box, and then return the kit to Tallaght hospital to be analysed. The test is regarded as the most effective means of screening for bowel cancer.
The Irish Cancer Society has welcomed the screening programme and said it will "endeavour to ensure" the rollout of a nationwide bowel cancer screening scheme for people aged over 55 by 2010 through the National Cancer Screening Service.
"We would welcome this programme," a spokeswoman for the society said.
"Our aim is to reduce the numbers of people presenting with Stage 3 colorectal cancer by 10 per cent per annum and reduce mortality from colorectal cancer in those over 50 years of age, who have tested positive, by 18 per cent over the next five years."
