A one-off screening test could cut the risk of developing bowel cancer by a third and save thousands of lives every year, according to the findings of a major new study.
Scientists found a 43 per cent reduction in death rates following a study of men and women aged between 55 and 64 who underwent an examination of the lower colon and rectum.
The findings of the research, involving 170,432 men and women, and published online in The Lancet journal, were drawn from those patients who underwent sigmoidoscopy, where a camera mounted on a thin, flexible tube is inserted around a third of the way into the bowel.
Most bowel cancers stem from polyps or symptomless growths in the rectum and colon and where these were found they were removed in a safe and pain-free procedure, the researchers said.
Researchers said the test could save thousands of lives every year and spare tens of thousands of people the trauma and suffering of cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Bowel cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK and the second biggest cancer killer after lung cancer, claiming the lives of around 16,000 people a year.
The current screening method for bowel cancer, called the faecal occult blood test, looks for traces of blood in stools and helps to detect the cancer at an early stage.
The results were hailed as a "breakthrough" by Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK.
He called for the incoming Government after the General Election to add the test to the existing bowel cancer screening programme as a "matter of urgency".
