GP backing could lead thousands more to take bowel cancer test

Almost 40,000 more people might take a bowel cancer test in England each year if the letter inviting them to do so was endorsed by their GP, according to research funded by the National Institute for Health Research and published in the British Journal of Cancer. This higher uptake could result in up to an additional 61 cases of bowel cancer (more than one extra case each week) being identified annually following the test, which looks for hidden traces of blood in faeces that can be a sign of the disease. It could also lead to high or medium-risk bowel