Bowel cancer ‘hits Ma¯ori, poor hardest’

Angela Holbrook still feels lucky to be alive 15 years after a delayed bowel cancer diagnosis.

By the time the Nelson woman got a colonoscopy, 18 months after the first symptoms, doctors found a giant tumour blocking three-quarters of her bowel.

Holbrook, 67, is one of many Kiwis to receive a late diagnosis of bowel cancer, according to a recent Otago University study.

Author Zoe Windner investigated the experience of 98 bowel cancer patients to assess why it’s faster for some Kiwis than others.

She found late diagnoses were more likely for those receiving public healthcare, increasing the chances of a ‘‘poorer outlook’’ and potentially early death.

For 56 per cent of participants, it took six months or longer to be diagnosed, a situation more likely in the public system, and lesseducated people, those from poorer backgrounds, and Ma¯ ori were found to be most at risk.

In New Zealand, 24 per cent of bowel cancers are metastatic, or terminal, at diagnosis compared with 19 per cent in Australia and 17 per cent in Britain, the Otago University study said.

Delays in diagnosis of six months or more were most common for younger patients, Ma¯ ori, those without a tertiary qualification and those treated in the public system.

Most often patients were found to have consulted a friend or family member about worrying symptoms, then went to a GP and were referred to a specialist.

Access to timely diagnosis was likely related to socioeconomic status of individual patients, the study authors discovered.

Holbrook, meanwhile, said she had become a lot more vigilant about her and her family’s health.

Her two children have been encouraged to have regular colonoscopies and her daughter has already had pre-cancerous polyps removed as a result.