Study shows screening benefits

Results of a bowel cancer screening programme at a Dublin hospital have reinforced the “urgent need” for national screening, the Irish Cancer Society has said.

Fifty people tested positive for bowel cancer as a result of the screening programme at the Adelaide and Meath Hospital (AMNCH) in Tallaght, which were launched today.

The “overwhelming positive pickup rate” demonstrated the “potential benefits of bowel screening programmes” Professor Colm O'Morain consultant gastroenterologist at AMNCH and Dean of Health Sciences at Trinity College Dublin said at the launch.

“Our programme demonstrates the cost effectiveness of a national programme of bowel screening. The cost could be further substantially reduced by using current existing resources, both equipment and personnel, in hospital settings,” Professor O’Morain said.

The programme issued 6000 test kits to participants in the Tallaght area. They carried out the test in their own homes and sent them back to the hospital for analysis.

The Irish Cancer society said the study reinforced the urgent need for a national bowel cancer screening programme to be implemented.

“This screening programme simply cannot wait until the Government’s finances recover. A national bowel cancer screening programme is the best way, indeed the only way, to tackle the major problem of preventable deaths from bowel cancer,” Kathleen O’Meara of the Irish Cancer Society said,

Last week the Irish Cancer Society offered to donate €1 million to the Department of Health to help establish a national bowel cancer screening programme.

Minister for Health Mary Harney has said she would “not be turning down” the offer to fund the programme for men and women aged 55-74 living in Ireland and could save more than 300 lives each year.

Colorectal Cancer (CRC) is the second largest cause of cancer related death in Europe and the third most common cancer in Ireland.