George Alagiah, one of the BBC’s most respected journalists, has died aged 67, nine years after being diagnosed with bowel cancer.
What is bowel cancer?
Bowel cancer is cancer found anywhere in the large bowel, which includes the colon and rectum. The large bowel is part of your digestive system. It helps absorb water from your food and removes food waste from your body.
How common is bowel cancer?
Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer type worldwide. In 2020, almost 2m cases were diagnosed. Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death, leading to almost 1 million deaths each year.
What causes bowel cancer?
Several things may increase the risk of bowel cancer, although they cannot explain every case.
These include a diet high in red or processed meats and low in fibre, being overweight or obese, not taking enough exercise and drinking too much alcohol. Being a smoker and having a family history of the disease can also push up the risk.
Some people also have an increased risk of bowel cancer because they have another long-term condition, such as extensive ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease.
What are the signs of bowel cancer?
The three main symptoms of bowel cancer are having persistent blood in the stools, a change in bowel habit such as needing to go more often or experiencing the runs and persistent lower abdominal pain, bloating or discomfort.
A loss of appetite may also occur, or somebody may suffer significant, unintentional weight loss. Tummy pain, bloating and feeling very tired for no reason are also among the symptoms.
Most people with these symptoms do not have bowel cancer, but the general advice is to see your GP if you have one or more of the symptoms and they have persisted for more than four weeks.
How serious is bowel cancer?
It depends on how big the cancer is, if the cancer has spread, and the state of your general health. Alagiah was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in 2014, which is the most advanced stage.
What is the treatment for bowel cancer?
Bowel cancer can be more difficult to treat in its later stages. But in the early stages, tumours can often be removed through surgery. About 90% of patients with stage one bowel cancer will survive their cancer for five years or more after they’re diagnosed, according to Cancer Research UK.
The main treatments for bowel cancer include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and targeted drugs, which depend on the genetic makeup of the tumour.
After Alagiah’s initial cancer diagnosis in 2014, the disease spread to his liver and lymph nodes, which needed chemotherapy and several operations, including one to remove most of his liver. He revealed in October 2022 that it had spread further.
Is screening available for bowel cancer?
Yes. In the UK, screening is widely offered to people aged 60 to 74 who are sent a home stool kit every two years. Those aged 75 and over can ask for a kit every two years by phoning the free bowel cancer screening helpline on 0800 707 60 60. In Scotland and Wales screening is offered earlier, from age 50 and 55 respectively.
In the United States, the US Preventive Services Task Force recommends that adults age 45 to 75 be screened for bowel cancer. It says the decision to be screened between ages 76 and 85 should be made on an individual basis.
In Australia, eligible people aged 50 to 74 are sent a free test which can be performed at home every two years.
• This article was amended on 25 July 2023 to add details about earlier screening offered in Scotland and Wales.
