About this website

This website aims to help you make an informed choice about bowel cancer screening.

It has been developed for Australians who want to know more about the benefits and risks of bowel cancer screening. It summarises the best quality research evidence about faecal occult blood testing (FOBT) and is designed to be balanced, helping you to work out what’s most important for you so that you can make an informed decision. It may be a little different to health information sources you have used before.

We have used the best estimates we can for how likely things are to occur, expressing them as a number per 1,000 people in diagrams. The numbers are there to give you a ‘ball-park’ figure to work from and if you want to know where they came from, we provide the references for you. The information is personalised to your risk level and you can indicate what is important to you.

BEFORE you read further…… Is this DECISION AID really for you or should you be considering other screening tests for bowel cancer?

The faecal occult blood (FOB) test is recommended for people of average risk of developing bowel cancer. If you are at higher risk, it may be better for you to have a colonoscopy or other tests.

The following pages will help you to work out your risk level depending on age, gender and family history, and lead you to the appropriate informationfor your risk.

For more information about how this is done see FAQ.

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