National Screening for Bowel Cancer – Idea to Reality – Monday 28TH October 2013, 7pm

About 30 years ago it was recognised that the presence of bowel cancer could be detected by testing for traces of blood in stool, and that this might be utilised for screening.  In the intervening period there has been an international research effort to determine whether or not population screening for bowel cancer really prevents deaths from the disease, and whether or not it is feasible.

As a result of this effort, National Screening Programmes are now in place across the UK and in several countries in the world,  and  Scotland  was the first to offer screening to the whole population.  The process is not perfect, however, and there is on-going research  aimed at improving the performance of the screening programme.