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Colorectal screening - Management
What are the possible harms of the screening programme?
- Anxiety over false-positive screening results.
- Complications of colonoscopy, including:
- Heavy bleeding — occurs in approximately 1 in 600 people.
- Bowel perforation — occurs in approximately 1 in 1200 people.
- Death — occurs in approximately 1 in 14,000 people.
- Inappropriate reassurance from a negative screening result may lead people to ignore symptoms of bowel cancer unless they understand the limitations of screening. To reduce the risk of this occurring:
- Written information about the limitations of the screening test, and the symptoms of bowel cancer, is provided before the faecal occult blood test kit is sent.
- Information about the symptoms of bowel cancer to be looked for is again provided when people are informed of a normal screening result.
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