PEOPLE with a family history of bowel cancer should have more regular tests than those currently recommended if they want cancers picked up early, new research shows.

Professor Graeme Young of the Flinders University Centre for Cancer Prevention and Control said a new study boosting confidence in faecal immunochemical tests should also prompt those over 50 without a family history of bowel cancer to be tested every two years to protect themselves against colorectal cancers.

Professor Young issued the advice yesterday after his research found yearly faecal tests were effective in picking up cancers and pre-cancerous lesions in people with a family or personal history of the disease who would ordinarily rely on colonoscopies every five years to detect problems.

He said the study of more than 1000 Australians published in Gastroenterology this week showed those who opted to take a yearly faecal test and had a positive reading from those tests had a cancer diagnosis made on average 25 months earlier than if they relied only on scheduled colonoscopies.

While survival outcomes for the people were not measured in the study, Professor Young said earlier detection could mean the difference between life or death for some patients.

He said the findings should boost people’s confidence in faecal tests, which can be bought for about $25 at pharmacies or obtained free through the federal government’s screening program when people turn 50, 55 and 65.

But Professor Young said he hoped the study would prompt the government to send free faecal tests to those over the age of 50 more regularly because evidence showed a single test did not offer the best protection against cancer.

”There’s a very strong evidence base for colorectal cancer screening being valuable with these tests … and the government is not committing to rolling this out in the way it should be,” he said.

”I would recommend people over the age of 50 get a faecal test every second year, whether they get it free through the government’s screening program or not.”

Faecal immunochemical tests are also known as faecal occult blood tests

Keyhole and open surgery for colorectal cancer both have proven benefits but the fastest time recovery appears to be coming from enhanced recovery after surgery programs, researchers say.

Laparoscopic, or keyhole, surgery has been the gold standard for gall bladder operations for a few decades but it has had a slower uptake in colorectal treatment, a study says.

Researchers analysed data on elective resections for colorectal cancer from 2000 to 2008 and noticed a rise in laparoscopic surgery from about 2.4 per cent to 27.5 per cent in Australia.

Lead author of the study published in the Medical Journal of Australia, Bridie Thompson of The University of Queensland, says that for rectal cancer, the increase was from 1.1 per cent to 21.5 per cent during that time.

“Impetus for the increased uptake of laparoscopic surgery for CRC comes not just from good quality evidence from randomised trials and recommendations by medical bodies, but also from the positive experiences of surgeons and their patients in everyday clinical practice,” Ms Thompson said.

Commenting on the study, Associate Professor Ned Abraham of the University of New South Wales, said the short-term advantages of keyhole surgery for colourectal cancer had proven benefits but they were marginal.

People contemplating surgery should note that keyhole and open surgery both have benefits, keyhole more for older patients, he said.