BOWEL CANCER is the third most common cancer and the second leading cause of death among cancers in the Western world – yet only half of all Cypriots know what it is.
Although highly treatable if caught early, few people recognise the disease’s severity and, unlike breast cancer or lung cancer, rarely undergo asymptomatic screening.
“In Cyprus 50 per cent of the population does not know about bowel cancer. According to cancer records, bowel cancer is the second most common cancer in women and the fourth most common cancer in men on our island.
“It affects around 200 Cypriots a year, a number which has grown in the last two years,” the Cancer Patients and Friends Association (PASYKAF) said yesterday.
Speaking at a news conference to mark the launch of a six-month bowel cancer awareness campaign, PASYKAF president Dr Anna Achileoudi said that by raising awareness and creating a national screening programme hundreds of lives could be saved.
“In five years the state could as a result have a lot less costly treatments, patients would have a better quality of life, patients survival would increase, and mortality would go down,” she said.
The powerful taboo which surrounds conversations around bodily functions and bowel habits are responsible for 112,000 annual European deaths, which could be prevented and cured if diagnosed early, she said.
PASYKAF said that due to a lack of information a lot of bowel cancer cases went undiagnosed until they became inoperable thus reducing survival rates. It said the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC), of which PASYKAF is a member, promoted greater awareness, early diagnosis and effective treatment.
President of the Gastroenterology Association Dr George Potamitis said the causes of colon cancer included a diet high in animal fat, a family history of colon cancer, the presence of adenomatous polyps (mushroom like growths) in the colon, inflammatory bowel disease, and hereditary polyposis syndromes.
Symptoms included rectal bleeding, change in bowel movement, alternating diarrhoea and constipation, sensation of incomplete evacuation after a bowel movement, obstruction and anaemia, he added.
People at high risk were therefore patients with an immediate family history of colon cancer, people with adenomatous polyps and hereditary polyposis syndromes, and sufferers of inflammatory colon diseases (ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease).
These patients should undergo screening without symptoms, as should anyone over the age of 50, he said.
As part of the fight against bowel cancer morbidity and mortality, Potamitis said the Gastroenterology Association was in the process of drawing up a National Bowel Cancer Screening Programme in consultation with the European Commission.
He said at this stage it was thought to recommend that people over the age of 60 were screened directly with a colonoscopy, whereas people aged between 50 and 60 could first be tested for blood in their stools. Where a sample came back positive the patient would then be sent for a colonoscopy.
The doctor said early screening would not only save lives but research had shown these tests were also cost effective in the long run as it saved money for treatments.
Surgeons present at the news conference added that early diagnosis also meant less invasive and less complicated surgeries as well as a better prognosis for recovery.
The PASYKAF awareness campaign will pave the way for the screening programme’s implementation next year. The campaign, marked by the ‘blue star’, the international symbol for bowel cancer, is supported by the Health Ministry, the Gastroenterology Association, the Oncology Association, and the Surgeons Association.
During the campaign PASYKAF has organised a series of lectures and functions designed to raise public awareness with support so far from the municipalities of Nicosia, Limassol, Paphos, Paralimni and Polis Chrysochous.
The campaign’s sponsors include Universal Life, Voici la mode Ltd – Marks n’ Spencer, Celio, Hadjidemosthenous Property Developers, Outpost.com, Sigma television and Simerini newspaper.
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