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Andrea Hogan is cancer-free after being diagnosed with bowel cancer the week of her 40th birthday.Credit: Steven Siewert

Hogan was diagnosed with bowel cancer virtually on the spot,and immediately booked in for an appointment with the surgeon to remove the mass on her bowel. Spotting it early helped Hogan avoid chemotherapy and make a full recovery – which is why she finds stagnating testing rates for the state’s second-most deadly cancer so “disappointing and frustrating”.

Screening rates have not improved significantly in the past six years,and fell from 42 to 39.5 per cent in 2021 in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Charlotte Hespe,chair of the NSW primary practice cancer advisory committee.Credit:Edwina Pickles

Under the national bowel cancer screening program,people between the ages of 50 and 74 are mailed a free testing kit every two years. However,less than 40 per cent of those eligible in NSW are using them,the most recent Cancer in NSW report reveals.

The NSW rate of 39.5 per cent lags the national average of 44 per cent,and only the Northern Territory and Queensland performed worse.

Dr Charlotte Hespe,a Sydney-based GP who heads the NSW primary practice cancer advisory committee,said the low rate was “disappointing but not surprising”.

She said recent changes allowing GPs to give out screening tests,or order them on patients’ behalf,might encourage more people to do it.

“It’s never been given to GPs to roll out … the kit comes to[patients] totally isolated from any other health things they do,” she said. “Hopefully,that will improve things.”

Hespe said the true rate was probably higher as many people were getting their bowels checked through a colonoscopy,an effective but more invasive screening method. A July 2023paper published by Queensland’s Cancer Research Centre said that more than a third of people who opted out of doing the bowel screening test were screened outside the program.

The test involves collecting a stool sample to detect whether there is any blood as a potential sign of bowel cancer. NSW Chief Cancer Officer Professor Tracey O’Brien said the test had a bit of a “yuck factor” for some people.

“People are reluctant to talk about poo and changes in their bowel habits … but once you’ve done it,you don’t think twice about doing it again,” she said. “If it’s a test that takes 10 minutes that can save your life,I think it’s worth doing.”

In October,the National Health and Medical Research Council recommended lowering the bowel cancer screening start age to 45,in line with the United States.

It was now up to the federal government to fund and implement the recommendation,said Bowel Cancer Australia chief executive Julien Wiggins.

“Youthfulness should not be a barrier to timely diagnosis,” he said.

The 2023 report also showed fewer people are dying from cancer in NSW than at any point in the past 50 years,while nearly half a million people are living with some form of the disease.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said that,while cancer had claimed about 16,000 lives this year and left many spending the holiday season in NSW cancer wards,the state had “some of the world’s best cancer outcomes” with almost 70 per cent of people surviving beyond five years of a cancer diagnosis.

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