BOWELSCAN

The Rotary Club of Galston, Inc.

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BOWELSCAN

Bowelscan Kits are made available during March each year from local pharmacies

This is an excellent cost effective way to check your health. It is imperative for ALL men and women over the age of 40 to have a Bowelscan test EVERY YEAR. The cost per kit is $8.00.

Background

Bowelscan is a Rotary program developed in 1982 in New South Wales and now conducted by over 250 Rotary Clubs across Australia.

These Clubs supply approximately 150,000 test kits during their annual Colorectal Screening programs. Since Bowelscan commenced, it is estimated that more than 1,000 people with bowel cancer and 5,000 with polyps have been detected.

In 1990, a National Committee comprising representatives from Rotary Districts operating Bowelscan programs was established to develop and maintain protocols.

Bowelscan is essentially a public awareness program seeking to increase community knowledge of bowel cancer and its symptoms. The project involves the distribution to the public of a simple and affordable test kit on which is collected small specimens of faeces for analysis.

Why Introduce a Program of this Nature?

Cancer of the bowel is the commonest internal cancer to affect men and women in western society. Over 9,000 Australians will be diagnosed as having bowel cancer this year and over 4,500 will die of the disease.

Recently published overseas controlled trials, using the Bowelscan model, demonstrated up to 33% reduction in mortality from colon cancer in those individuals undergoing an annual screening program.

Some doctors hold the view that testing for occult (hidden blood) is not sufficiently adequate and permits too many false positives and false negatives. In effect, they say some people are alarmed unnecessarily by returning a positive result and, similarly, some are falsely reassured by a negative result.

Their views are respected and all Bowelscan programs emphasise to participants that this is a screening program only and positive results indicate the need for further investigation.

Newspapers, radio stations and regional television stations have been supportive everywhere the program has been conducted.

Health Information

There has been a minor increase in the incidence of the disease, with no improvement in survival in the past 40 years.

There are four important characteristics of bowel cancer from a screening point of view:

	The cancer begins nearly always as a non-malignant projection from the bowel wall, known as a polyp or adenomatous polyp.
	The process of change from a polyp to cancer is slow - up to ten years.
	Polyps and cancers bleed from time to time.
	The earlier the treatment of a cancer or polyp is undertaken, the better the outcome.

The detection of unseen bleeding from the intestinal tract may provide early evidence of a polyp or cancer. This bleeding can be detected with chemical tests of bowel motions.
The most that can be achieved is to identify, by a positive result, a group within the tested community who have a higher risk of significant bowel disease and who require further investigation.

It is important therefore to keep Bowelscan in perspective. It is not a specific test to detect bowel tumours. The most that can be achieved is that Bowelscan can identify a bowel condition of which the participant is unaware and alert him or her to consult a doctor to determine its nature.

Further, it is strongly recommended that the test be undertaken annually.
The Bowelscan program is not perfect, nor are any of the screening programs such as for cancer of the breast or cancer of cervix. Despite these imperfections, cancers are found earlier in each program and the survival rates are improved.

The Bowelscan test is a simple chemical test for occult or invisible blood in the stool. Specimens collected by participants are tested by pathologists who report to the participant's doctor in the usual way.

In all of these matters - Rotary is the facilitator - not the tester and not the medical adviser.

In its fight against bowel cancer, Rotary aims to reduce the annual total of 4,500 Australian deaths from bowel cancer, to improve not only the lifespan, but also the quality of life of those affected and the well-being of those close to the victim.

Confidentiality

A test of this nature would normally be a confidential matter between doctor and patient. Taking the test into the public arena makes confidentiality no less desirable but more difficult to achieve.

Bowelscan Kits are made available during March each year from local pharmacies

This is an excellent cost effective way to check your health. It is imperative for ALL men and women over the age of 40 to have a Bowelscan test EVERY YEAR. The cost per kit is $8.00.

Background

Bowelscan is a Rotary program developed in 1982 in New South Wales and now conducted by over 250 Rotary Clubs across Australia.

These Clubs supply approximately 150,000 test kits during their annual Colorectal Screening programs. Since Bowelscan commenced, it is estimated that more than 1,000 people with bowel cancer and 5,000 with polyps have been detected.

In 1990, a National Committee comprising representatives from Rotary Districts operating Bowelscan programs was established to develop and maintain protocols.

Bowelscan is essentially a public awareness program seeking to increase community knowledge of bowel cancer and its symptoms. The project involves the distribution to the public of a simple and affordable test kit on which is collected small specimens of faeces for analysis.

Why Introduce a Program of this Nature?

Cancer of the bowel is the commonest internal cancer to affect men and women in western society. Over 9,000 Australians will be diagnosed as having bowel cancer this year and over 4,500 will die of the disease.

Recently published overseas controlled trials, using the Bowelscan model, demonstrated up to 33% reduction in mortality from colon cancer in those individuals undergoing an annual screening program.

Their views are respected and all Bowelscan programs emphasise to participants that this is a screening program only and positive results indicate the need for further investigation.

Newspapers, radio stations and regional television stations have been supportive everywhere the program has been conducted.

Health Information

There has been a minor increase in the incidence of the disease, with no improvement in survival in the past 40 years.

There are four important characteristics of bowel cancer from a screening point of view:

The cancer begins nearly always as a non-malignant projection from the bowel wall, known as a polyp or adenomatous polyp.

The process of change from a polyp to cancer is slow - up to ten years.

Polyps and cancers bleed from time to time.

The earlier the treatment of a cancer or polyp is undertaken, the better the outcome.

It is important therefore to keep Bowelscan in perspective. It is not a specific test to detect bowel tumours. The most that can be achieved is that Bowelscan can identify a bowel condition of which the participant is unaware and alert him or her to consult a doctor to determine its nature.

The Bowelscan test is a simple chemical test for occult or invisible blood in the stool. Specimens collected by participants are tested by pathologists who report to the participant's doctor in the usual way.

In all of these matters - Rotary is the facilitator - not the tester and not the medical adviser.

In its fight against bowel cancer, Rotary aims to reduce the annual total of 4,500 Australian deaths from bowel cancer, to improve not only the lifespan, but also the quality of life of those affected and the well-being of those close to the victim.

Confidentiality

A test of this nature would normally be a confidential matter between doctor and patient. Taking the test into the public arena makes confidentiality no less desirable but more difficult to achieve.

It is important that the public is aware that every effort is being made to maintain confidentiality.