New findings have indicated that a bowel cancer screening programme at Dublin's St Vincent's Hospital has the potential to save thousands of lives and cut bowel cancer death rates in half.

Of the 200 patients screened to date at St Vincent's under its national bowel cancer screening programme, two out of three have been found to have pre-cancerous polyps and one in 10 have been diagnosed with early,  cancers which did not have symptoms.

According to the results of a study on the programme, presented at the recent Irish Society of Gastroenterology Winter Meeting in Killarney, those patients in whom cancer was detected were diagnosed at a much earlier stage than would normally be expected.

During the first round of the screening programme at St Vincent's people aged 60-69 years are being invited to undergo a F.I.T. (Faecal Immunochemical Test) screen which analyses minute fragments of stools for microscopic traces of blood.

Patients carry out the test at home, sending a minute fragment of stool to a screening centre through the post.

Those with a positive test will be referred for a colonoscopy to examine the bowel in more detail. Any pre-cancerous polyps identified at this time are removed and patients diagnosed with bowel cancer are referred for surgery and follow-up treatment if needed.

Dr Glen Doherty, consultant gastroenterologist at St Vincent's Hospital and one of the authors of the study, said the results suggest that the screening programme will have a significant impact on bowel cancer deaths in Ireland.

"Unfortunately most patients with bowel cancer only present with symptoms when the disease is at any advanced stage and has spread to other parts of the body. Survival rates with advanced bowel cancer are very poor.

"However, if we can identify people at an earlier stage, many can be cured with a simple operation," Dr Doherty said.

The St Vincent's results were part of BowelScreen, the national bowel cancer screening programme launched earlier this year. The St Vincent's team analysed the testing results for the first five months of the programme following its launch