The bowel cancer screening programme has ticked over a significant milestone, with two million home-screening kits distributed across New Zealand. Health Minister Dr Shane Reti marked the milestone at an event in Penrose today. Since the programme began a national roll-out in 2017, it has picked up 2495 cancers.
“A third of these were at an early stage, where there is a greater than 90 per cent chance of five-year survival,” Reti said. “That’s almost two-and-a-half-thousand New Zealanders who can thank the programme, which has also detected thousands of pre-cancerous polyps – growths in the bowel which can become cancerous if left untreated.”.
