Bowel cancer screening age lowered to 55 in Wales
Tuesday 4 October 2022
Bowel cancer screening will be made available to more people in Wales as home testing is expanded to include 55-57 year olds.
The expansion will mean 172,000 more people in Wales will start to receive easy to use kits that test for the early stages of bowel cancer. The move is part of a phased approach to lowering the screening age to 50 by October 2024.
People aged 55, 56 and 57 will start to be invited for screening from Wednesday 5 October and will receive their home testing kits in the post. The programme will be rolled out to the newly eligible age group gradually over the next 12 months.
The easy to use home testing kits have helped improve screening uptake to 65% in Wales and have improved sensitivity to better detect those at risk of bowel cancer.
More than 2,500 people were diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2019 in the country. Screening plays an important role in detecting cancer earlier and helps to improve cancer outcomes in Wales.
Genevieve Edwards, Chief Executive at Bowel Cancer UK says: "This is a step in the right direction towards screening from 50 in Wales, which we’ve long campaigned for. Screening is one of the best ways to diagnose bowel cancer early, or in some cases prevent it from developing in the first place, and so inviting more people to take part is welcomed.
"Offering the home test to more people is just one of the ways to improve bowel screening, however, the biggest barrier to improving early diagnosis, and offering a world-class screening programme, is the long-standing workforce shortage in endoscopy and pathology services. We now urgently need to address this through a comprehensive workforce plan that can support the bowel cancer screening programme in Wales to achieve its full potential."
In England from April 2021, the NHS in England will gradually reduce the age range for bowel screening. This will be phased over the next four years to include people aged 50-59. In Scotland, screening starts from age 50 and in Northern Ireland people over the age of 60 are invited to take part in screening.
- Read more about the importance of bowel screening
- Find out more about our campaign to increase early diagnosis of the disease
- Knowing the symptoms of bowel cancer could save your life
