Cancer patients not given key test

♦ The lives of thousands of bowel cancer patients are being put at risk as hospitals fail to perform a simple genetic test, an investigation has found.

More than eight out of 10 hospitals are not screening for Lynch syndrome after a cancer diagnosis.

Carried by an estimated 175,000 people, the faulty gene makes them 80 per cent more likely to develop the cancer and means chemotherapy is less likely to work. Testing could help guide patient treatment and, as the condition is inherited, would mean their children could be screened, too.

Using Freedom of Information requests, the charity Bowel Cancer UK found that around 83 per cent of hospitals in England do not follow National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance with 91pc citing “financial” reasons for not doing so.