Plan to save lives from colon cancer ‘shelved’

THE Department of Health has shelved the first stage in a plan to introduce a national screening programme that would save lives from bowel cancer, a medical expert spearheading the project has claimed.

Eighty per cent of bowel cancers are diagnosed at a late stage and their incidence is rising annually.

Around 1,200 men and 800 women are diagnosed with colon cancer annually and around half of them die from the disease.