Bowel cancer is the commonest cancer affecting Australian men and women. There are approximately 10,000 new cases each year with around 5,000 Australians dying from it every year. That’s almost 100 lives each week or 1 Australian every 2 hours.

Yes! Bowel cancer is one of the most preventable, treatable and beatable cancers – particularly when caught early. More than 90% of people survive bowel cancer if it’s detected and treated at an early stage.

Testing, via either a home test or colonoscopy, is the ONLY way to detect the early signs of bowel cancer – which often has no apparent symptoms. The aim of testing is to find polyps (an early sign of bowel cancer) or to find cancer early when it is easier to treat and cure. Early testing can save your life.

In accordance with Gastroenterological Society of Australia guidelines, Let’s Beat Bowel Cancer recommends annual bowel screening for all Australian men and women aged 50 and over.

If you’re 50 and over and have a personal or family history of bowel cancer or polyps, have blood in your stool or other bowel symptoms, you should consult a medical practitioner as soon as possible.

Yes! For example, the Australian-made InSure® Faecal Occult Blood Test* (also known as a FOBtest) allows you to test for the early signs of bowel cancer at home. This clinically proven test requires no diet or medication changes, and no faecal handling. Once completed, you mail the test in a special envelope for pathology testing and the results will be posted to you and your nominated GP within two weeks.

The cost of the InSure® Faecal Occult Blood Test* is $35.95 including the pathology fee. A private health fund rebate may be available (receipt required to claim).

You can order a home test kit via this web site or by calling (03) 9508 1016.

I’ve heard about a Government bowel-cancer screening program. What is it? The Australian Government is offering free home bowel cancer test kits to eligible Australians (currently limited to people turning 50, 55 or 65) as part of it ‘National Bowel Cancer Screening Program’. If you have received a kit from the Government, we encourage you to complete the test. If you’re ineligible for the program, we encourage you to order a home test kit, and test every year.

*Let’s Beat Bowel Cancer is an initiative of Cabrini Health. It is a not-for-profit, community awareness program dedicated top saving lives through improved bowel cancer research, education and prevention. Neither Let’s Beat Bowel Cancer nor Cabrini Health, receive any benefit, financial or otherwise, for promoting the InSure® test.