Bowel Cancer Analytics and Screening

In both New Zealand and Australia, colorectal cancer remains the second-most frequently diagnosed cancer and one of the most common causes of cancer‐related death.

With evidence further reinforcing that bowel cancer screening reduces mortality through early detection and treatment, the Australian National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP) was introduced in 2006 as a means to reduce the number of national deaths from bowel cancer.

From covering those aged 55 or 65 years in 2006 to screening every two years for all Australians aged 50–74 years by 2020, the NBCSP has been progressively rolled out through a free, simple test at home. 



But saving lives is only one part of the story. A recent BCCA publication found that those who participated in the NBCSP had lower rates of surgical and medical complications and a shorter hospital stay.

Senior author for this paper is Professor Susannah Ahern, head of the Registry Science and Research Program at Monash University and BCCA Operations Committee Member.

Earlier this year, Professor Ahern was interviewed by Dr Norman Swan to discuss the paper on the ABC’s Health Report.

Ahern spoke to the significance of the study in the Health Report episode and its findings for better post‐operative outcomes.

“We reviewed the outcomes of over 11,000 people who had surgery for bowel cancer in Australia over about a 12-year period. We compared these surgical outcomes for those who were diagnosed via the bowel cancer screening program versus those that were not, and we found that those who were diagnosed via the bowel cancer screening program were significantly less likely to have post-operative surgical and medical complications and a shorter stay in hospital by about 1.5 days,” says Ahern. 



“We also found the characteristics of people who were screened were different to those who were not, so they were more likely to be younger, have fewer pre-existing conditions, have elective surgery and present at an earlier stage. So, we did adjust for a number of these factors in our analysis to see if there was still a difference in outcomes between the groups, and there was.”

Want to know more? There’s only one way to sfind out. Listen to the full episode here.

The BCCA continues to collect data from over 435 registered contributors with participation from many public and private hospitals represented throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Access is available to all clinicians working with bowel cancer patients. If you would like to become a contributor, please email our project manager here.