In England, around 1,100 cases of bowel cancer are caused by the inherited condition every year
The NHS has announced it is offering routine preventative bowel cancer screening to thousands of people in England living with Lynch syndrome (LS).
The NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme aims to reduce cases and identify bowel cancers earlier, when treatment and cure are more likely to be successful.
People living with LS will be invited for bowel surveillance annually, which includes being seen by a specialist team and assessed for a colonoscopy.
LS is an inherited condition that increases the chances of developing certain cancers, including bowel, ovarian and pancreatic. Of 100 people living with the condition, screening prevents between 40 and 60 people from developing bowel cancer.
Around 1,100 of all bowel cancer cases are caused by LS every year in England and the condition is predicted to increase the lifetime risk of developing bowel cancer by around 80%.
As part of the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, around 10,000 people in England who are currently on the LS register are being invited to join Lynch surveillance to catch thousands of extra cancers to diagnose and treat earlier.
Using a blood test, the NHS will be able to identify LS in patients and routine colonoscopies will be offered at local bowel cancer screening centres to make it easier for people to get tested.
In addition, almost all people diagnosed with bowel and endometrial cancer can receive the initial test to check for LS to help guide more personalised treatment and offer relatives testing.
Steve Russell, national director, screening and vaccinations, NHS, said: “Our… Bowel Cancer Screening Programme already helps identify thousands of cancers each year.
“Now, thousands more people who have been diagnosed with LS will also be given regular colonoscopies to check for signs of cancer and to detect the disease earlier.”
The announcement follows the expansion of the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme announced by the NHS in December last year, which offered at-home faecal immunochemical tests to an additional 830,000 people in England.
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