Ahus will accept faeces from 55-year-olds all over the country
55-year-olds are now being screened for bowel cancer. They can be examined to see if the faeces contain hidden blood.
Send the samples to Akershus University Hospital (Ahus). The hospital has been selected to have a nationwide laboratory function for the screening tests.
Monday is the official opening of the national screening program for bowel cancer at Ahus.
During the next year, the offer will be gradually introduced throughout the country. The first people invited to participate were born in 1967. The offer then goes out to everyone in the year they turn 55.
When the program is fully rolled out, it is expected that Ahus will carry out 200,000 analyzers a year. Fire positions will do the job.
Ten new bowel cancers are diagnosed every day
Norway is one of the countries in the world with the highest incidence of colon and rectal cancer (bowel cancer). Every day, ten Norwegians are diagnosed with this form of cancer, but the survival rate for bowel cancer patients is increasing.
4,550 people in Norway got colon or rectal cancer in 2021.
Early diagnosis is important. The goal of screening is to detect cancer cases early.
- All 55-year-olds will eventually be offered bowel screening with a stool sample, which must be taken every two years for ten years, until the age of 65.
- If invisible blood is found in the faeces, the patient is referred to an examination where a soft, flexible tube is passed up through the bowel via the rectal opening (colonoscopy).
- In the long term, the aim is for everyone to be offered a colonoscopy once, instead of five rounds of stool tests.
- Start the program gradually. It depends on the capacity of the health institutions that will carry out the examinations
The method used is a test for blood in the stool.
In practical terms, 55-year-olds receive a test kit in the post. A small sample of the faeces is taken and placed in the test tube. This is sent to the laboratory at Ahus. It is analyzed there.
You will receive an answer within four weeks.
If the laboratory finds blood in the sample, the patient will be summoned for a colonoscopy examination in hospital.
- If 1,000 people are tested for blood in their faeces, it is expected that 65 will have blood detected and be summoned for a colonoscopy.
- Of the 65 people who are examined with a colonoscopy, 2 will be diagnosed with cancer.
- Many will therefore undergo a colonoscopy without finding anything wrong.
Hoping for high participation
There has been a pilot project on bowel screening in Norway since 2012. Among the 70,000 who were screened with a test, approximately 60 percent participated. Participation was lower in those who were offered binocular examination of the lower part of the intestine (sigmoidoscopy).
Kristin R. Randel heads the bowel screening section at the Cancer Registry.
– At least as many of us will participate in the national offer as in the pilot project. In Denmark too, around 60 per cent participate in the bowel screening programme, she says.
Randel states that testing for blood in the faeces is the most commonly used screening method. It is also used in Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
It has been decided that colonoscopy will be offered as a screening method in the long term. But the capacity to examine people with a colonoscopy is too poor to introduce it for everyone from the start.
– Today, over 100,000 colonoscopies are performed annually in Norway. If we introduce screening with colonoscopy, it will require 50,000 extra colonoscopies, she says.
– It takes time to build up sufficient capacity. Both renting is practical, like more examination rooms, but not least it takes time to train more specialists. It is important that the introduction of screening does not go beyond the offer of colonoscopy to patients.
– Screening is not an “EU control”
But not everyone is equally convinced that screening is useful. Doctor and university lecturer Lise M. Helsingen at UiO has sat on an international expert panel (BMJ Rapid Recommendations) for bowel cancer screening. They believe that you can just as well say no to the survey as yes.
– It’s great that we in Norway are offered bowel cancer screening. The research suggests that it can have an effect if used in a good way. But it is important that everyone who stays can make their own choice to participate or not to do anything.
She points out that the authorities have a great responsibility to give people thorough and good information when they call large, healthy groups of the population for screening.
– This information should not give the impression that bowel cancer screening is an “EU check” – something you should or must do to take care of your health.
– Some will have serious complications
She says that many people are probably not aware that the vast majority of people who take part in the screening do not benefit from the examinations.
– Some of those who participate will have to carry out repeated examinations with a colonoscope. And a few will have serious complications as a result of these examinations.
Kristin R. Randel in the Bowel Screening Program says that they also inform about the possible negative aspects of screening.
– We are keen to provide balanced information about the screening offer, so that those who invite can make a choice whether they want to participate or not.