April is Bowel Cancer Awareness month and is a good opportunity to read up on and raise awareness of this condition, which is the fourth most common cancer in the UK with 43,000 people being diagnosed every year (bowelcanceruk.org.uk). From a personal perspective, with a family member who was treated for bowel cancer a few years ago, it has been very informative to read the excellent guidance provided by Bowel Cancer UK, who support those diagnosed, raise awareness and offer guidance to patients, their families and medical professionals.

By way of background, bowel cancer affects the large bowel which is made up of the colon and the rectum. Most bowel cancers develop from pre-cancerous growths, called polyps. But not all polyps develop into cancer. Cancer cells may stay in the bowel or they might spread to other parts of the body, like the liver or lungs. 

Most new diagnoses are of people who are aged over 50 (94 per cent) but this cancer can affect any age and more than 2,600 new cases each year are for people under the age of 50.

Tragically 16,500 people die from bowel cancer in the UK every year, but the number has been falling since the 1970s and bowel cancer is treatable and curable especially if diagnosed early. The key message being that early diagnosis really does save lives.

Talking about bowel habits and raising concerns about bowel cancer can be difficult both as these are such personal symptoms and sometimes can be related to other conditions. It can also sometimes be hard to monitor how bowel habits or changes have occurred and how long these have been going on for.

The key symptoms to look for are:

• Bleeding from your bottom and/or blood in your poo
• A persistent and unexplained change in bowel habit 
• Unexplained weight loss
• Extreme tiredness for no obvious reason
• A pain or lump in your tummy

Whilst these symptoms can be linked to a range of other conditions, it is really important that you see your GP if you have any of these signs, are concerned about these or other symptoms or a family history of bowel cancer. Whilst there are pressures on GP practices’ time, it is always important to raise these concerns and seek advice.

It can be hard to recall the exact details and onset of symptoms during a GP appointment and this is where the Bowel Cancer UK symptoms diary is a great tool. This was pioneered by one of the charity’s supporters Beth Purvis, supported by Coloplast and formally endorsed by the Royal College of GPs. This is a clear user-friendly leaflet where you can record symptoms to assist this discussion with your GP and take this with you to an appointment to set out your concerns as well as how long these have been present for.

The specialist medical negligence team at JMW often see the huge impact upon patients and their families when there is a delay in diagnosis of cancer after concerns were not acted on by doctors. This only goes to strengthen the importance of discussing such symptoms as early as possible to seek guidance and advice. For more information, please read our Bowel Cancer Signs, Symptoms and Treatment resource.