Breakthrough bowel cancer test could cut out need for colonoscopies for good

Bowel cancer is the UK’s fourth most common cancer (Picture: Getty Images)

Getting tested for bowel cancer is about as fun as it sounds – having a long, thin camera jammed up your bum and a tissue sample taken.

It’s usually either colonoscopy or a biopsy at home, where you send off one gram of poo to be analysed.

As effective as both are, doctors and charities have long feared that how we test for bowel cancer can put people off being screened for the fourth most common cancer in the UK.

But health officials say a new, simpler, cheaper test could soon be on the NHS that will remove the need for invasive screening methods.

MiONCO-Dx measures the microRNA, tiny molecules that determine how cells mature and function, in a patient’s blood sample.

A big role of microRNA is regulating how much protein cells make – too much or too little of a given protein can result in diseases like cancer.

Colonoscopies check inside your bowels using a camera (Picture: Getty Images)

Artificial intelligence (AI) sniffs out if cancer is present and, if so, where in the body it is, the government said today.

More than 44,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year, or about 120 every day.

The disease is one of the most lethal types of cancer, killing more than 16,800 people every year – 46 people a day.

Early detection of colon cancer can prevent a majority of deaths, possibly as much as nine in 10 of them. Yet only about 69% of Britons at risk asked to undergo bowel screening ‘adequately participated’ in 2022.

The tool, made by startup Xgenera, could change this, according to the government. It can detect 12 common cancers, including bowel cancer, at an early stage with 99% accuracy, preliminary tests show.

This new solution will be assessed in a government-backed clinical trial of 8,000 patients. If all goes to plan, it will be rolled out on the NHS.

The earlier the disease is picked up, the better the survival rate (Picture: Getty Images)

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: ‘This blood test has the potential to help us detect bowel cancer earlier and reduce the need for invasive tests, and the next step in this trial will now be vital in gathering further evidence on its effectiveness and how it could work in practice.’

Professor Lucy Chappell, chief scientific adviser at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), added: ‘Innovations such as the mIONCO-Dx blood test offer an exciting new era in cancer detection with the potential for quicker, easier and more effective ways to detect cancers before they become more difficult to treat.’

Health Secretary Wes Streeting was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2021, becoming cancer-free after one of his kidneys was removed.

‘From my own experience, I know the devastating toll cancer can take on patients and families, and how many of them have been faced with long waiting lists to get the diagnosis and treatment they deserve,’ he said.

Wes Streeting was diagnosed with cancer in 2021 (Picture: Getty Images Europe)

Streeting said that investing in the bowel cancer research breakthrough is a way to ‘honour’ cancer awareness campaigner Dame Deborah James.

James, known as ‘Bowelbabe’, died in 2022 after being diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016.

Cancer Research UK’s BowelBabe Laboratory – a research hub for bowel cancer treatments – was named after her.

‘It is only right that we honour her legacy by investing in research to help stop one of the country’s biggest killers,’ Streeting added.

Professor Powis agrees. ‘Dame Deborah James was a tireless and inspirational campaigner who helped change the national conversation on bowel cancer,’ he said.

‘It’s fitting that this lab in her name will drive forward research that could help thousands more people survive the disease.’

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