At Let's Beat Bowel Cancer, we’re on a mission to reduce the incidence of bowel cancer – a condition that kills almost 5,000 Australians every year.

An initiative of Cabrini Health, Let's Beat Bowel Cancer is a not-for-profit, community awareness program dedicated to saving lives through improved bowel cancer research, education and prevention.

We know it’s possible to save many lives, because even though bowel cancer is the second greatest cause of cancer-related death in Australia – and the country’s most prevalent internal cancer in men and women – it is also the most preventable.

In fact, if all people over 50 did an annual home FOBtest – a simple, non-invasive test that can detect the early signs of bowel cancer – we could virtually say goodbye to bowel cancer, forever!

If you have a family history of bowel cancer, blood in your stool or any other symptoms, please consult your doctor as soon as possible.

Please take some time out to look around this web site, which explains more about bowel cancer, screening and prevention… it could save your life.

“We have the capacity to prevent and diagnose bowel cancer at an early stage and save many lives. Screening of people without symptoms and early investigation of those with symptoms can lead us down the path to ultimately eradicating the disease. We really can beat bowel cancer”.

Emeritus Professor Adrian Polglase

Chairman, Let’s Beat Bowel Cancer

Let's Beat Bowel Cancer (formerly known as Tackling Bowel Cancer) was established by Cabrini Health in 2001. It is a community awareness initiative designed to alert Australians to the major risk of bowel cancer, and to support clinical research focusing on prevention, early detection and treatment of the condition – all of which have the potential to save many lives.

Some of the key goals of Let's Beat Bowel Cancer are to…

• Destigmatise, demystify and increase awareness of bowel cancer as a major public health issue.
  
  
• Encourage every Australian over 50 to complete a home FOBtest every year. This simple test can detect the early signs of bowel cancer in time to prevent it.
  
  
• Improve knowledge of the environmental and genetic factors that can influence the development of bowel cancer.
  
  
• Improve awareness and attitudes on detection, investigation and treatment of bowel cancer.
  
  
• Promote support for ongoing bowel cancer research and education.

Let's Beat Bowel Cancer supports the research activities of the Cabrini Monash University Department of Surgery. Headed by A/Professor Paul McMurrick, the Department has a demonstrated commitment to bowel cancer research and education. The Department has an active research program exploring the areas of prospective trials in surgical practice, mainly involving colorectal surgery, development of new surgical equipment and technologies, and fostering genetic studies into bowel cancer. Work of the department, completed in conjunction with the Cabrini Institute, includes…

• The development of a prospective colorectal database registry, which is unique in Australia.  The database offers a far more concentrated examination of the affect on outcome of patient medical co-morbidities than any previous database.
  
  
• A pilot study to investigate the intention to screen for bowel cancer amongst hospital employees with a view to developing “Bowel Cancer Free Zones”.
  
  
• A revised prospective randomised double-blinded trial comparing continuous wound infusion of local anaesthetic compared with placebo for post-operative pain control following colorectal surgery.
  
  
• An evidence-based trial comparing outcome and safety with the use of different clinical techniques for reusable elements of sigmoidoscopy: disposable versus reusable air insufflators as well as the use of commercial air filters.
  
  
• The use of Extracorporeal Magnetic Innervation (ExMI) in the management of faecal incontinence.
  
  
• A study examining methods of providing information to colorectal cancer patients.
  
  
• An assessment of “component training” in colorectal surgery training.
  
  
• A study of rectal cancer APR rates.
  
  
• A prospective randomised trial comparing laparoscopic and conventional open surgical treatments of colorectal cancer in adults.
  
  
• A multicentre study to determine the effect of an anti-inflammatory medication in the recurrence of neoplastic polyps in the large bowel.
  
  
• A pilot study involving in vivo imaging of normal and abnormal human colonic mucosa using fluorescence confocal endoscopic imaging of the lower and upper GI tract.

Cabrini Institute
Better Health Channel

Founder and Chair
Emeritus Professor Adrian Polglase

Committee
Libby Crosthwaite
Pamela Darragh
Andrew Facey
Bryan Gurry
Des Jackson
John McMurrick
Graeme Sanford
Geoff Stansen

Staff
Jane McCasker

Patron
Peter Thomson

Ambassadors
John Fitzgerald
Todd Woodbridge

Geoff "Coxy" Cox