Bowel cancer screening can help reduce the number of deaths caused by the disease by nearly 45 per cent, according to a new study conducted by a team from the University of South Australia.
Close to 700,000 people across the world reportedly die due to bowel cancer.However, researchers claim the statistics would be much higher if it weren't for pre-diagnostic colonoscopies.
Detecting the disease early before the symptoms show up is crucial to reducing death rates caused by the disease. Researchers came to this conclusion after studying data from12,906 bowel cancer patients, as well as faecal occult blood testing (FOBT), and follow-up colonoscopy.
The team from UniSA's Cancer Epidemiology and Population Health discovered just one pre-diagnostic colonoscopy reduces the risk of cancer death by 17 per cent. They also found a 27 per cent reduction with those who undertook pre-diagnostic colonoscopy procedures. The risk reduced to 45 per cent if there were more than three. 37 per cent of the patients analysed for the study had pre-diagnostic colonoscopies. These patients also had a higher chance of living longer compared to those who were diagnosed with the medical condition after showing symptoms of the disease.
Dr Ming Li, one of the study authors, said patients who underwent pre-diagnostic colonoscopies showed a "significant increase" in survival. "The risk of colorectal cancer death reduces step-wise with increasing numbers of colonoscopy examinations before symptoms appear, cutting the mortality rate from 17 per cent to 45 per cent," she told a news portal.
Adding, "Our findings show the value of the National Bowel Screening Program which is now being rolled out to everyone in Australia over the age of 50 on a two-yearly basis. It involves doing a simple, non-invasive faecal occult blood test (FOBT) which, if positive, is followed up with a colonoscopy."
Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer across the world. Cancer Council reports 90 per cent of patients can be treated if the disease is caught early.
Previous research claims bowel cancer risk can be reduced with the help of cereal and a high fibre diet. "Eating more fibre after colorectal cancer diagnosis is associated with a lower risk of dying from colorectal cancer," senior study author Dr Andrew Chan from Harvard Medical School andMassachusetts General Hospital in Boston told a news portal. Adding,"This seems to be independent of the amount of fibre eaten before diagnosis."
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