Health

Home cancer test kits to be supplied to all UK over 60s

by LotusFlower | December 23, 2008 at 12:57 am

381 views | 9 Recommendations | 4 comments

Bowel cancer is one of the most common cancers for both men and women in the UK but if caught early can be effectively treated.

The government have released plans for all over 60s in the UK to be issued with home testing kits that could see over 2,500 lives a year saved.

The scheme will start in Northern Ireland and then be rolled out across the country.

Early detection means earlier treatment means lives saved.

Cancer Research scientists estimate that the tests, being rolled out across the country as part of a new NHS bowel cancer screening programme, could cut deaths from the disease by 16 per cent by 2025.

Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in men, affecting more than 20,000 every year, and the second most common in women, after breast cancer, with 13,000 new cases annually.

The kits test for traces of blood in stools, a key early sign of the disease.

Doctors agree that catching bowel cancer before it has progressed significantly can raise the chances of survival.

About 80 per cent of those diagnosed at an early stage survive.

The study used a computer simulation, based on trends in the disease in the last 30 years, to estimate the impact that screening 60 to 74-year-olds will have.

Dr Max Parkin, a Cancer Research scientist at Queen Mary University of London, said: "The results of our study show the large number of lives that could be saved by the national bowel cancer screening programme in the next 20 years.

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Miriam Mannak

at 02:31 on December 23rd, 2008

Good news. I hope that the userfriendlyness of those kits is up to scratch. You do not want t have a negative result when indeed you have cancer, or the other way around.

LotusFlower

at 04:36 on December 23rd, 2008

I agree lets hope they've tested the testing kits for exactly this kind problem.

Art_By_Alida

at 06:19 on December 24th, 2008

Great news.

Now, they need to give home test kits for celiac disease for every child one year old.

My sister is a teaching physician in pediatrics and says every child one year old needs to be tested for that and the home test kit for celiac disease is only available in the U.K.

One in 133 people have it and only about one in 4000 are diagnosed correctly....and I have no idea why the FDA in the States has not approved the over the counter test in the States. So many children and adults are suffering needlessly. And it can be life threatening.

Read about celiac disease here:

http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/celiac/index.htm

edwards (not verified)

at 07:43 on February 3rd, 2009

The future of medicine is full of home cancer checks (homecancercheck.com), as this practice assures higher compliance and far lower costs for the national healthcare system.