National Bowel Cancer Screening Program
As part of its Strengthening Cancer Care initiative announced in the 2005 Federal Budget, the Australian Government allocated $13.4 million over three years to phase in a nationally coordinated, population based, bowel cancer screening program. This follows the success of the Bowel Cancer Screening Pilot Program that ran from November 2002 to June 2004.
Bowel cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in Australia with around 12,800 new cases each year resulting in about 90 Australians dying each week from the disease. Bowel cancer is one of the most curable types of cancers and can be treated successfully if detected in its early stages, but currently fewer than 40 per cent of bowel cancers are detected early.
The overall evaluation of the Bowel Cancer Screening Pilot Program found that population screening for bowel cancer in Australia was both acceptable to the target population and effective in improving the rate of early detection bowel cancer. Due to the success of the Pilot Program, the decision was made to roll out the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (the Program).
The Program commenced in August 2006 and is to be phased in over a number of years. This is to help ensure that health services, such as colonoscopy and treatment services, are able to meet any increased demand.
An evaluation of this phase of the Program will be completed prior to the 2008 Federal Budget with a view to extending bowel cancer screening, if successful on clinical grounds, to additional age groups. The additional age groups would be targeted over a number of years.
What is the role of Medicare Australia?
Medicare Australia is working in partnership with the Department of Health and Ageing to implement the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program. Medicare Australia’s role in the Program is to assist in the administration aspects including establishing the National Bowel Cancer Screening Register, the collection of information about participation in the program, including test results, and mail house functions.
Who will be invited to take part?
Initially screening will be offered to Australians turning 55 or 65 years of age between 1 May 2006 and 30 June 2008, and to those who were involved in the Pilot Program. Temporary visa and temporary residents will not be invited to participate in the Program regardless of whether they are in the specified age range.
The names and addresses of people eligible to take part in the program have been drawn from Medicare Australia or Department of Veterans’ Affairs records. The way in which invitations are sent out will vary from state to state, with some people receiving their invitations around the time of their birthday and some receiving their invitations at the same time as other people living in their area.
Why are only people turning 55 or 65 years of age invited to take part?
Research shows that the risk of developing bowel cancer rises significantly from the age of 50. The evaluation of the Bowel Cancer Screening Pilot recommended that screening be offered to people aged 55 to 74 years of age.
It is important that the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program be introduced slowly to provide time to ensure that health services, such as colonoscopy services, are able to meet any increased demand. This is why during this phase of the Program, only those turning 55 or 65 years of age between 1 May 2006 and 30 June 2008 are being invited to screen.
What is the screening process?
People eligible to participate in the Program will receive an invitation pack in the mail. The pack includes an information booklet and a Faecal Occult Blood Test (FOBT) kit. The test is completed in the privacy of the participant’s home and then mailed in the envelope provided, to a laboratory for analysis. There is no cost involved to the participant for completing the FOBT.
Ideally the participant should do the FOBT within two weeks of receiving the kit and no later than two months after receiving the kit.
The results are sent to the participant, their doctor (if nominated) and also to the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program Register about two weeks after the completed test was posted to the pathology laboratory.
If a participant receives a positive test result they will need to discuss the result with their doctor.
More information:
- For more information about the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program visit the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing website at:
www.cancerscreening.gov.au
- For more information about the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program Register, you can call the:
National Bowel Cancer Screening Register Information Line on 1800 118 868 *
Or
- Contact your doctor or health care provider
* call charges apply from mobiles or pay phones only
Last updated: 28 May, 2008