About this policy
UPDATE: From 1st July 2024, the Australian Government is lowering the eligible screening age for the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program. People aged 50-74 will still be sent a free home test kit by the Australian Government every two years, but now people aged 45-49 can also request a free screening kit to be mailed to them.
Bowel (colorectal) cancer causes the second highest number of cancer deaths in Australia (after lung cancer) yet can usually be treated successfully if detected early.
Bowel cancers typically begin as precancerous polyps, called adenomas, which can be detected and removed before becoming cancers. The cancer tumours themselves can also be removed with relative efficiency if detected before they spread beyond the bowel.
In 1997, the Australian Government published an analysis of the data on bowel cancer screening that clearly showed the benefits in mortality reduction on a population basis. The evidence shows these are highest in people aged 50 and over, screened every two years; evidence does not support mass screening of people aged below 50.
In 2002, the government conducted pilot studies that supported the clinical and cost-effectiveness of biennial population screening for bowel cancer in Australia using the faecal occult blood test (FOBT).
The Australian Government's National Bowel Cancer Screening Program, introduced in 2006, now provides a free FOBT kit and pathology to all Australians aged 50 to 74. Cancer Council urges all eligible Australians to participate.
Detailed analysis of the evidence on bowel cancer screening and recommendations on the roll-out of Australia's National Bowel Cancer Screening Program is available on these pages.
Cancer Council Australia first published a chapter of its National Cancer Prevention Policy calling for the introduction of a bowel cancer screening program in Australia in 2001. The chapter has since undergone four comprehensive reviews, with evidence-based recommendations to advance bowel cancer screening in Australia.
This 2018 update draws on the systematic review which informed the NHMRC-approved Clinical practice guidelines for the prevention, early detection and management of colorectal cancer (third edition), published in October 2017.
It has been reviewed internally by the Screening and Immunisation Committee of Cancer Council Australia’s principal Public Health Committee and externally by: Dr Hooi Ee (Gastroenterologist, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital) and Prof Mark Jenkins (Director of the Centre for Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of Melbourne). It has been approved by Cancer Council’s principal Public Health Committee in October 2018.
Contact: cancercontrolpolicy@cancer.org.au.
