New research grants available to accelerate a ‘stage shift’ towards earlier diagnosis of bowel cancer

We’re thrilled to announce that we will fund £200,000 worth of new bowel cancer research this year. This will support innovative projects to help facilitate a ‘stage shift’ towards earlier diagnosis of bowel cancer in the UK.

The above is in addition to the grants we announced earlier this year worth over £93,000 as part of our commitment to help stop people dying of the disease.  

This funding will empower researchers across the UK to trial bold, new ideas as well as allowing talented, emerging researchers to venture into bowel cancer research.

Currently, fewer than 40% of people are diagnosed at stage 1 and 2 when bowel cancer is most treatable and curable. When diagnosed at its earliest stage, more than 9 in 10 (92%) people with bowel cancer will survive their disease for five years or more, compared with 1 in 10 (10%) people when the disease is diagnosed at the latest stages.  

The areas of interest we’re looking to invest in are: 

• understanding and identifying people at high risk of bowel cancer
• understanding and overcoming barriers to symptomatic individuals seeking help, including missed opportunities to diagnose bowel cancer when presenting with symptoms and understanding factors contributing to late diagnosis and diagnosis in emergency presentation
• research into innovative solutions to support earlier diagnosis across primary and secondary care
• initiatives to increase uptake of bowel cancer screening in areas of low engagement, including addressing the impact of health inequalities
• research focused on improving our national bowel cancer screening programmes, including new modes of screening, improvements to using Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) and risk stratification
• understanding bowel cancer in the under 50s, including how we diagnose younger people with bowel cancer more quickly

Genevieve Edwards, Chief Executive at Bowel Cancer UK, said: “We are delighted to announce another round of research grant funding dedicated to accelerating early diagnosis for bowel cancer. These important grants will support researchers with their high quality, innovative and creative solutions to ensure more people survive a bowel cancer diagnosis. 

“We've been at the forefront of campaigning for improvements for earlier diagnosis. Whilst there have been important steps forward, there are still many unanswered research questions, which if addressed could help accelerate our progress further and ultimately save more lives. Through strategic investment in targeted research, we aim to drive positive change for patients and help to deliver improvements in bowel cancer survival in our lifetime." 

Find out more about how you can apply for a grant and how we decide which projects to fund. If you have any questions, please get in touch at research@bowelcanceruk.org.uk