People at Risk of Bowel Cancer Should Undergo Earlier Screening

By Petrina Smith
Thursday, 05 February, 2015

Approximately on in every 1000 Australians has a predisposition to inheriting bowel cancer, according to research from the University of Melbourne.
A team, led by Professor Mark Jenkins from the Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Population and Global Health has found that people with a genetic mutation that results in Lynch Syndrome have a five year risk of bowel cancer and are hundreds of times greater at risk than average.
Working with researchers at the University of Lyon in France, the researchers discovered that carriers with mutations in the DNA repair genes also have a higher risk of uterus and stomach cancers.
Professor Jenkins estimates up to 25,000 Australians have this inherited cancer predisposition.

“These are the first estimates of short-term risk of bowel cancer in mutation carriers and justify frequent screening by colonoscopy especially once they reach their thirties,” Professor Jenkins said.
“Colonoscopy can prevent cancer by detecting polyps before they become cancer, and can detect bowel cancer early when it is easily treatable. At-risk people can also reduce their risk of cancer by taking regular aspirin,” he said.
For such mutation carriers, current guidelines recommend a colonoscopy every one to two years starting in their mid twenties. The findings recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology support this recommendation for screening from age 30 years.