There are fears many more Australians will die from bowel cancer because of a “blow-out” in colonoscopy waiting times.
Bowel Cancer Australia is calling on governments to address the “looming” crisis, after independent research showed more than half of patients who return a positive screening result don’t have the diagnostic procedure within the recommended 30 days.
Governments must “adequately” fund colonoscopy services to reduce the delays and save lives, says Bowel Cancer Australia CEO Julien Wiggins.
“Ninety per cent of bowel cancer cases are treatable when detected early,” Wiggins said.
It is estimated there will be 1.11 million colonoscopies by 2021 of which the national bowel cancer screening program will make up 9 per cent, or 100,000.
“We’ve already got 4 months, 9 months and 12 months waiting times now in 2017. In three years time I shudder to think as to what the waiting times will be if the issue is not addressed sooner,” Wiggins said.
Bowel cancer is Australia’s second biggest cancer killer. Around 1 in 23 Australians will develop bowel cancer.
A colonoscopy is considered the “linchpin” to detecting the deadly disease early.
Associate professor Graham Newstead, a colorectal surgeon, says if you return a positive screening test you are either bleeding from something benign like haemorrhoids or you are bleeding from a neoplasm, a new growth in the bowel. These growths are either a polyp or a cancer.
Almost a half of men (40 per cent) and 30 per cent of women will have a polyp develop in their bowel over their lifetime.
Not all polyps are cancerous but all bowel cancer develops from a polyp, says Newstead. He warns waiting any longer than 30 days for a colonoscopy can mean some patients will “miss the boat” in catching cancer early because of the rapid growth of abnormal cells.
“It’s about picking up the people at a curable stage,” he said. “We can’t tell who has what sort of tumour without doing a colonoscopy.”
Patients in the public hospital system are waiting too long for the procedure.
In Tasmania, some public patients have waited 12 months for the procedure and the problem is going to get worse because of an aging population, Wiggins said.
“It’s good to have the screening program, we want to save more lives, but people need the necessary follow-up in a timely fashion,” he said. “It comes down to the resourcing in the public system and the funding to make positions available so we can actually get through this backlog.”
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