Bowel screening - Why is the test important?

Bowel cancer screening can detect bowel cancer when it is at an early stage in people with no symptoms. This is when treatment is more likely to be effective. Screening reduces your risk of dying from bowel cancer by at least 25%.

There are some risks of bowel cancer screening. It might:

• cause complications, for example, during or after colonoscopy
• miss a cancer if it was not bleeding when you used the FIT kit

As with all procedures, there is an element of risk involved. You can find more detailed information about the screening programme on GOV.UK.