{"id":19924,"date":"2025-01-14T08:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T09:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=19924"},"modified":"2025-01-14T09:26:42","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T09:26:42","slug":"over-50s-in-england-offered-home-bowel-cancer-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=19924","title":{"rendered":"Over-50s in England offered home bowel-cancer tests"},"content":{"rendered":"
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All 50-74-year-olds in England will now receive a home-testing kit for bowel cancer every two years.<\/b><\/p>\n

NHS England has been posting the faecal-immunochemical test (Fit) to all 54-74-year-olds since 2021 and anyone older can request one over the phone.<\/p>\n

But after trials of local screening programmes for 50-year-olds, the age is now being lowered, bringing it in line with Scotland and Wales.<\/p>\n

And more than 850,000 extra people in England will now be able to return a stool sample to be checked for blood.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Northamptonshire’s youngest patient diagnosed through the screening programme, Steven Ball, 54, submitted a positive sample last May.<\/p>\n

A colonoscopy at his local hospital detected a small lesion, found to be early-stage cancer.<\/p>\n

Keyhole surgery removed it, in July, and Mr Ball is now unlikely to need further treatment.<\/p>\n

“My cancer was so small it didn’t show up on a CT scan and it was caught at a very early stage and removed, which is the best thing that can happen, he told BBC News.<\/a> <\/p>\n

“It shows how important it is to do your stool test when it comes through the post and to get yourself checked out so you have peace of mind.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One out of every 50 of those who return samples needs further testing, which can include a scan, the NHS says<\/p>\n

But less than 60% of 54-57-year-olds return their Fit kits, compared with more than 70% of 60-74-year-olds.<\/p>\n

Cancer Research UK says more than 120 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer – the fourth most common type – each day in the UK, more than 11% of all new cancer cases.<\/p>\n

NHS England national clinical director for cancer Prof Peter Johnson urged people not to “feel embarrassed about poo”, encouraging all those eligible to use the “quick and simple” Fit kit.<\/p>\n

“What we do know is that the chances of surviving it are very good when it is caught early,” he added.<\/p>\n

Bowel Cancer UK’s research director Dr Lisa Wilde said: “Screening is one of the best ways to spot bowel cancer at an early stage – when it is treatable and curable.<\/p>\n

“In fact, more than nine in 10 people survive bowel cancer when it’s diagnosed at the earliest stage.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All 50-74-year-olds in England will now receive a home-testing kit for bowel cancer every two years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19926,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19924"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19927,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19924\/revisions\/19927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}