Bowel Cancer Screening
Bowel cancer screening aims to find bowel cancer early, when there is the best chance of being successfully treated.
Bowel cancer screening is available to everyone between the ages of 50 to 74 years. All invitations to participate in bowel screening will soon be sent via the NHS App in the first instance (so please turn your notifications on). For those who don’t have the NHS App or do not respond, they will receive invitations either via text or by post.
A bowel cancer testing kit is sent in the post every 2 years to those who are eligible. You need to be registered with a GP to receive your screening invitations. The test is called FIT – Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) – and looks for invisible blood in the stool.
You do the test at home. The kit contains instructions of how to do the test and includes a prepaid envelope to send the sample to the laboratory for testing.
You should get the results within a few weeks. The letter will tell you what, if anything, you need to do next.
If you’re 75 or over and you wish to continue being screened for bowel cancer, you can ask for a FIT test kit every 2 years by phoning the free bowel cancer screening helpline on 0800 707 60 60.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, the FIT kit test does not diagnose bowel cancer; however, the results of the test will show if there is any blood present in your sample.
Your results letter is usually sent within two weeks. If no trace of blood is found, you will simply get an all-clear with no further testing required. If there are traces of blood found in your sample, you will be invited in for further investigations, normally a colonoscopy.
Because most bowel cancers (over 90%) occur in people aged 50 and over, the bowel cancer screening programme focuses on this age group. However, anyone with symptoms—under 50 or older—should contact their GP practice promptly.
Check that your contact details at your GP practice are accurate and up to date. If you are eligible and still yet to receive a kit, call the bowel cancer screening helpline on 0800 707 6060.