Breakthrough bowel cancer test could cut out need for colonoscopies for good

Bowel cancer is the UK’s fourth most common cancer (Picture: Getty Images)

Getting tested for bowel cancer is about as fun as it sounds – having a long, thin camera jammed up your bum and a tissue sample taken.

It’s usually either colonoscopy or a biopsy at home, where you send off one gram of poo to be analysed.

As effective as both are, doctors and charities have long feared that how we test for bowel cancer can put people off being screened for the fourth most common cancer in the UK.