Bowel cancer test may be a much better way to screen for polyps

A BLOOD test that can spot early-stage bowel cancer may be a more accurate way to screen for the disease than current methods.

Bowel cancer starts with the growth of small clumps of cells called polyps. If found early, these can be removed before they turn cancerous.

Many countries currently use the faecal occult blood (FOB) test to routinely screen those aged 50 or over for polyps. This simple test detects blood in stools, but doing this only picks up around 15 per cent of polyps.

Colonoscopies are much better, but are expensive, invasive and require the use of general…