BMJ  2007;335:795 (20 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.39370.652245.13

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Wider use of colonoscopy could improve outcomes in bowel cancer

Zosia Kmietowicz

London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Increasing the use of colonoscopy to investigate potential cases of bowel cancer could help to improve outcomes in people with the disease while also reducing costs, suggest the results of an economic modelling study.

The study, commissioned by the Department of Health, looked at the costs of different aspects of managing bowel cancer in England and also at how developing bowel cancer services in different ways could affect costs and benefits for patients. The findings will feed into a review of cancer services by the department.

Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in England; 27 800 new cases were diagnosed in 2003. Five year survival rates are less than 50%, partly due to the large proportion of late diagnoses.

Researchers at the York Health Economics Consortium at the University of York and the School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield have estimated that it . . . [Full text of this article]


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