Test for bowel cancer earlier, experts urge

BOWEL cancer is rising among the under- 50s in the UK, prompting calls to drastically lower the screening age.

Colon cancer cases among the group have risen almost 2 per cent in a decade, with the biggest rise coming in those aged between 20 and 39.

Patients are routinely screened for bowel cancer at 55 or 60 in England, and although Public Health England has said it will start screening at 50, experts are calling for this to be lowered further.

Bowel cancer is thought to be rising in younger people because of obesity, drinking and poor diets.

The new statistics come from separate studies published in the Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology journal and the British Medical Journal.

Andrew Beggs, a consultant colorectal surgeon at the University of Birmingham, said: ‘In an ideal world, we would start screening everyone at the age of 35 or 40.’