Bowel Cancer Check for Sixty-Somethings

All North Staffordshire people aged between 60 and 69 will be invited to have tests for a form of cancer next year.

They will be sent letters asking them to return samples through the post to be checked by scientists for signs of bowel cancer.

This form of cancer costs hundreds of lives a year nationwide because it is detected too late to treat.

Despite the death toll, the condition is one of the most curable forms of cancer if it is diagnosed early.

The screening programme is part of a national one which should have started last year but was held up because hospital pathology laboratories were too small to cope with the numbers of samples expected to be sent in.

Stoke-on-Trent public health director Dr Giri Rajaratnam has revealed that the local programme was also delayed by a further two months because the University Hospital of North Staffordshire – where samples will be checked – did not have enough doctors trained to run it.

He added that the aim was now to cover everyone between 60 and 69 by the end of next year, then in 2010 extend it to those up to 75.

“A decision will be taken in that year whether to screen those under 60 as well, depending on emerging evidence,” he said.

The only two national screening programmes currently running check for breast and cervical cancer and have saved thousands of lives across the UK.

(c) 2008 Sentinel, The (Stoke-on-Trent UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.