Podcast - 5 Things About... bowel cancer, the poo test and how it can save your life

“What you’re really telling me is this is an opportunity to legally send poo to the government”.

Rose Story from the Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics interviews Professor Mark Jenkins for a special episode of Five Things About... Preventing Bowel Cancer.

“I was imagining you had to scoop it"
"No you don’t do that”

Bowel cancer kills more Australians than breast cancer or prostate cancer, yet it's seldom discussed. Australia has one of the highest rates of bowel cancer in the world, with 15,000 new diagnoses and 4000 people dying every year.

But it's one of the most preventable cancers (with a 90 per cent cure rate if it's caught early enough), when people usually experience no symptoms.

Epidemiologist Professor Mark Jenkins, of the Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, explains Australia's bowel screening program for over-50s, what exactly the home screening test involves, and why it's important to get over the ick factor.

(alt link to episode here)