About Bowel Screening

Bowel screening involves a test for bowel cancer in people who do not have a personal or family history, or any obvious symptoms of the disease. If you have symptoms or a personal or family history of bowel cancer you should discuss this with your doctor. The aim of screening is to find very early stage bowel cancer or any polyps when they are easier to treat and cure.

Bowel cancer can develop without any early warning signs. The cancer can grow on the inside wall of the bowel for up to several years before spreading to other parts of the body. Often very small amounts of blood leak from these growths and pass into the bowel motion before any symptoms are noticed.

A test called a Faecal Occult Blood Test (FOBT) can detect these very small amounts of blood in your bowel motion before they become visible to the naked eye. The FOBT looks for minute amounts of blood in your bowel motion, but not for bowel cancer itself.

The FOBT is a simple test that you can do at home. It involves placing small samples of a stool or the toilet water surrounding a stool on special cards and sending them to a pathology laboratory for analysis. The results are then sent back to you and your doctor.

Your FOBT result is negative if no blood is found in your samples and it is recommended that you repeat a FOBT every two years. However, this does not mean that you do not have, or can never develop, bowel cancer, since some bowel cancers do not bleed or only bleed occasionally.

In between times, if you develop any symptoms of bowel cancer, see your doctor immediately.

Your FOBT result is positive if blood is present in your samples. If blood is detected, you should contact your doctor immediately to discuss the result. The presence of blood may be due to conditions other than cancer, such as polyps, haemorrhoids, or inflammation of the bowel, but the cause of bleeding needs to be investigated.

Overseas studies have shown that FOBT, when performed every 2 years in people aged 50+, can help reduce the number of deaths due to bowel cancer by 15 to 33 percent as a result of early stage bowel cancer detection.

Bowel Screening in New Zealand

New Zealand does not have a government-funded nationwide bowel screening programme. The present government allocated $31 million to fund a bowel screen pilot that commenced in the Waitemata DHB region in October 2011. The screening pilot is planned to run for 4 years after which time there will be analysis and evaluation before any decision is made about whether to introduce a nationwide screening programme. People who live in the Waitemata DHB area aged 50 – 74 years will be eligible to take part and will receive free screening kits bi-annually. This is a start and we strongly encourage all eligible people in the Waitemata DHB area to take part in the bowel screening pilot.

More information about the screening pilot underway in the Waitemata DHB area:

Bowel Screening Website

Resources to support participants

However we also believe all New Zealanders in the recommended age group (50 – 74 years) should have the opportunity to screen for bowel cancer. The evaluation report from the Waitemata DHB Pilot is not due until 2016. If the decision is then made to introduce a nationwide government-funded programme it may take several more years to introduce this programme throughout the country. Realistically it may take until 2020 before we have a nationwide screening programme in place.

In the absence of a nationwide screening programme, if you are concerned you should talk to your doctor about screening, who may refer you for a screening test. Alternatively, it is possible for New Zealanders in the recommended age group, who live outside the proposed Waitemata DHB bowel screen pilot area, to purchase a bowel screen test kit over the counter at a participating pharmacy or by ordering a kit through secure online purchase. (see below)

Bowel Screening Pathway

We encourage New Zealanders to participate in appropriate screening for bowel cancer. The pathway below sets out your bowel cancer screening options.

If people have a family history or any of the symptoms of bowel cancer (change of bowel habit, rectal bleeding, tiredness, pale complexion, unexplained weight loss, a lump or mass in the tummy and/or persistent abdominal pain), they should go directly to their GP.

Click here to download a Bowel Cancer Screening Pathway

BowelScreen Aotearoa™ Test Kits

BowelScreen Aotearoa™ is a collaborative initiative between Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa, Bowel Screen Australia and Pharmacybrands (with the support of the screening kit producers - Enterix) to introduce in NZ the opportunity to purchase bowel screening kits across the counter at Pharmacybrands pharmacies. The same FOBT test kit has been available for purchase in Australia for the past 10 years and has a proven record.

The kit can be purchased for $60 at a participating pharmacy (Amcal, Unichem, Care, Life or Radius), www.bowelscreenaotearoa.org, or through a secure online purchase. The test kit is simple to use and comes with clear instructions.

It entails taking samples of the toilet water closely surrounding two separate bowel motions and painting the water onto collection pads, using brushes supplied in the kit. The kit is then posted to Australia for processing in a reply paid envelope, along with the person's details and details of their New Zealand GP. Once the test is processed the results will be sent to both the person and their GP.

A positive result from bowel screening test does not confirm the presence of bowel cancer, but it does indicate the presence of blood that may be invisible to the naked eye in your bowel movement. This may be an early warning sign. You should speak to your doctor who will initiate further investigation which may include a colonoscopy or a CT colonography.

A negative result means there is no blood found in your samples, and it is recommended that you repeat a FOBT every two years. However, this does not mean that you do not have, or can never develop bowel cancer, since some bowel cancers do not bleed or only bleed occasionally.

In between times, if you develop any symptoms of bowel cancer, see your doctor immediately.

Purchase a BowelScreen Aotearoa™ Test Kit

Click here www.bowelscreenaotearoa.org to visit the BowelScreen Aotearoa™ website to locate your nearest participating pharmacy.

Click here to make a secure online purchase.

Beat Bowel Cancer Aotearoa does not receive any benefit financial or otherwise from the BowelScreen Aotearoa™ test kit initiative.