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Early cancer screening saves lives

Research into Australians’ attitudes to screening tests for bowel (colorectal) cancer is being undertaken by CSIRO through the Preventative Health Flagship in partnership with two South Australian universities.

• 22 March 2011 | Updated 14 October 2011

Background

This project aims to better understand peoples’ risk perception and intention to undertake screening for colorectal cancer.

The Preventative Health Flagship has brought together researchers from CSIRO’s Health Science and Nutrition, Flinders University of South Australia, University of Adelaide and the Repatriation General Hospital to find out how to influence public attitudes towards colorectal (bowel) cancer screening.

The risk of this cancer increases with age. Regular bowel screening for people over the age of 50 can save lives by allowing the detection of a higher proportion of cancers early enough for current therapies to be effective.

Australia has one of the world’s highest incidences of colorectal cancer, with one person dying from bowel cancer every two hours – twice as many deaths as road accidents.

Australia and New Zealand have amongst the highest incidence and mortality rates in the world for this disease. About 12 000 Australians are diagnosed and 4500 people die each year from the disease.

Because of the late diagnosis, survival rates five years after treatment for colorectal cancer are only about 54 per cent. However, in patients where diagnosis is made early, survival rates can be a high as 80 to 90 per cent.

Early detection a key

Colorectal cancer can take a long time to develop from initiation through to when symptoms arise.

One of the ways of detecting the presence of this cancer is to test for haemoglobin (from blood) presence in stool samples using a simple test – a faecal occult blood test (FOBT).

As many as 15 to 33 per cent of deaths can be prevented if the cancer is detected early using FOBT. Only 40 per cent of people aged between 50 and 75 years, who are at a reasonable risk of developing the cancer, now participate in screening.

The research group is evaluating how to present information to the general public and how to influence attitudes towards screening in order to motivate people to actually test themselves with a FOBT.

Researching public attitudes

Current research projects are focused on:

• understanding consumers’ risk perception and intention to undertake faecal occult blood test (FOBT) screening for colorectal cancer
• cues to action – what initiates consumers to undertake a FOBT
• preparing a Cochrane evidence-based review of variables that impact upon participation in colorectal cancer screening
• working with local and international collaborators develop a colorectal cancer screening decision aid.

Learn more about CSIRO's work in Health & Wellbeing.