23 October 2007

Major grant for bowel screening research

The University of Dundee has received a grant of £526,000 from the Chief Scientist’s Office to establish a new Screening Research project to analyse data collected from the recently-opened national Bowel Screening Centre.

The Bowel Screening Centre, located at King’s Cross Hospital in Dundee, is the focal point of the Scotland-wide initiative to make screening available to all men and women between the ages of 50 and 74 in Scotland, currently the most comprehensive national screening programme in the world.

Its work will be complemented and enhanced by the research project, which will use data collected at the centre to examine how effective screening is in reducing mortality rates, how uptake of screening can be improved and how the technology can be advanced.

"Widespread screening for bowel cancer will have a real impact on how we fight the disease but it also poses some key questions," said Professor Bob Steele, Director of the Screening Centre, who will oversee the research project.

"We know screening has a significant impact on mortality rates but we need to quantify exactly what the effect is. There are also variations in uptake of screening - more women than men come forward, for instance - and we need to find out more about why these occur and how we can address them."

"It is also important that advances in screening technology are trialled within the programme and introduced promptly when proven."

Early detection of bowel cancer offers a far higher chance of successfully treating the disease. Professor Steele said the research project offered the chance to develop more sophisticated screening systems which could have impact around the world.

"The data gathered by the screening programme provides a hitherto untapped resource for developing a coordinated screening research project. The work of the research project will provide a truly unique insight into the effect of a bowel screening intervention that will have implementation implications for screening not only in the Scottish NHS, but also world-wide. As Scotland is the first country to roll out a true population-based screening programme, it gives us an opportunity to consolidate our position as the international leader in this field."

The Bowel Screening Centre was opened by Shona Robison MSP, the Minister for Public Health, who described it as having `the potential to save thousands of lives’.

More than 3,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer in Scotland every year. It is the third most common cancer in Scotland after lung and breast cancer and, when detected early, can be treated successfully in 90% of cases.

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