Dr Peter Moore: Spot the early signs of bowel cancer to save your life

As medical students, we occasionally had evening wards round to discuss any patients who had been admitted during the day.
One evening, the registrar taking the round took us away from the patient and gave a long history. I confess that I was not listening. I suspect that he spotted my vacant look and so, at the end of his presentation he pointed to me and said, “What’s your first diagnosis?”
“Cancer” I replied knowing that almost any admission could be a cancer. “Which one?” “Bowel” I replied. If I was going to be wrong, let’s be completely wrong.
“Absolutely” he replied to my surprise. “Anyone presenting with a change of bowel habit for more than three weeks, blood in the stools and weight loss must be investigated for bowel cancer.
Luckily, medicine has made incredible progress since then. There are now very effective screening programmes, so that we no longer have to wait for symptoms.
This is important because we know that bowel cancer can be cured if caught early. I have several friends who had bowel cancer in the past and are now very well and disease free.
Sadly, if left it can be fatal, as we saw recently with the tragic death of the BBC News presenter George Alagiah at the age of 67. By the time his bowel cancer was diagnosed it was too late.
He was too young to be screened, as then screening was only for people between 60 and 74. Now it is now being rolled out to anyone over 50. George Alagiah spent the last few years of his life campaigning to encourage people to get tested when asked.
The screening test, or poo test, is very simple. People take a swab of their poo and send it off in the post. Testing your poo is not the most attractive activity but is a great deal more attractive than dying of bowel cancer.
The test, the Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT), looks for microscopic traces of blood. As with all screening, not every positive means a cancer. If positive, people have the bowel examined by a colonoscopy.
Amazingly, 30% of people receiving the test ignore them. Men are worse than women. It may be inconvenient, they may be “too busy” or “not get round to it” but what is more important than saving your life?
I do not usually write about my own medical history but I do have some experience. Four years ago, my poo test was positive. I had no symptoms. Although it was worrying, I knew that, if it was a cancer, it would almost certainly be curable.
I went to the endoscopy unit at Torbay Hospital, who were delightful and very efficient. They did find and remove a polyp, which is like a finger dangling into the bowel. It turned out to be benign, so I did not have bowel cancer but most bowel cancers start as polyps and can turn into cancers and, so I was relieved to have it removed.
This year, as a routine, I had to have another coloscopy and this time they found several polyps, all of which were removed and all of which were benign.
When I read about George Alagiah, I realised how lucky I was. The polyps might or might not have become cancerous but I’d rather not take the risk.
By not listening at medical school but guessing, currently I have never forgotten that anyone with a change of bowel habit, weight loss, blood in the stools needs to be tested for bowel cancer.
This still applies but today we can pick it up or even prevent it at a much earlier stage through screening with the poo test. Do not leave the test sitting by the toilet and not getting round to it. What’s more important than saving your life?