{"id":375620,"date":"2026-04-01T01:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T01:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/375620\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T01:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T01:20:11","slug":"bowel-cancer-ireland-criticises-incremental-expansion-of-screening-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/375620\/","title":{"rendered":"Bowel Cancer Ireland criticises ‘incremental’ expansion of screening programme\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

A row has broken out over how slowly the HSE\u2019s bowel screen programme is expanding to cover different ages.<\/p>\n

The HSE announced on Tuesday it will expand the programme to cover people aged between 57 and 71, starting this week. It means an extra 116,000 people are eligible, as the cut-off was previously 58.<\/p>\n

However, Bowel Cancer Ireland have criticised this for lacking ambition.<\/p>\n

\n Brendan Donlon,<\/a> co-chairman of the group and a stage 3 bowel cancer survivor, acknowledged lives could be saved by this expansion, but added: \u201cWe cannot allow incremental progress to be presented as ambition. Moving from 58 to 57 is not a strategy, it is a delay dressed up as progress.<\/p>\n

“The evidence has pointed to 45 for years. Ireland is not acting on it.”<\/p>\n

He pointed to National Cancer Registry Ireland data showing bowel cancer among under-50s has almost doubled over the past 25 years.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s frustrations centre around advice from Hiqa previously to expand the programme to cover ages 55 to 74.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This target was also advised in the National Cancer Strategy 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday’s announcement brings the lower age limit to 57, still two years short of even that long-overdue commitment,\u201d Bowel Cancer Ireland said.<\/p>\n

Mr Dolan called on people to protect their health.<\/p>\n

“If you are 45 or older, ask your GP about bowel cancer screening at every annual checkup,\u201d he urged.<\/p>\n

Symptoms potentially of concern if they persist over time include changes in bowel habit, blood, unexplained weight loss, persistent bloating.<\/p>\n

\"DrDr Alan Smith: ‘Not all cancers or polyps bleed all the time, so a normal result does not guarantee that cancer isn\u2019t present.’ Picture: Sasko Lazarov\/Photocall Ireland<\/p>\n

The HSE said expansions have seen an extra 293,000 people become eligible since October 2023.<\/p>\n

It plans to continue expanding to reach 55 to 74, it said.<\/p>\n

Anyone who has not received an invitation to screening but is in the right age range, can request a free test kit on the HSE website.<\/p>\n

It estimates around 3,000 people every year have growths called polyps removed from their bowel after screening identified they were at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are all potential cancers prevented\u201d, a spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n

Public health medicine consultant with the National Screening Service Dr Alan Smith explained how screening helps prevent cancers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks for a level of blood in your sample and if that bleeding is above a certain level we will invite you for a follow up procedure called a colonoscopy to find the cause of the bleeding,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot all cancers or polyps bleed all the time, so a normal result does not guarantee that cancer isn\u2019t present. This is why it is so important to be aware of symptoms of bowel cancer and go to your GP immediately even if you had a recent normal screening result.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He stressed that screening is not a diagnostic test, however. <\/p>\n

Read more about bowel cancer in the Irish Examiner supplement The Bottom Line .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A row has broken out over how slowly the HSE\u2019s bowel screen programme is expanding to cover different…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24276,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-375620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-bowel-cancer","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}