Bowel cancer screening

With around 4,000 new cases a year, bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in Switzerland. About half of those affected die of this form of cancer each year.
Yet bowel cancer can be prevented through early screening. Ten years can pass between a detectable precursor and the onset of cancer. If the cancer is found early, it is almost 100% curable.

Every available route should therefore be used to inform people about life-saving screening. The workplace is particularly well suited to this. Workplace bowel cancer screening reaches exactly the right target group for both primary and secondary prevention. Employees at considerably increased risk, for example because of a family history, are informed in good time about the necessary screening measures. And when statutory screening begins, at age 50 or 55, these people are generally in employment.

How the workplace prevention programme works

Bowel cancer screening is designed to run in any company with no extra internal effort. We take on all the tasks, from designing and printing the promotional materials in your corporate identity, through dispatch and evaluation of the tests, to the medical consultation.

The costs are low. How it works in detail is set out below.

Information

First, posters in canteens and other busy places announce the forthcoming campaign. In the second stage, employees are invited to take part by email and/or by letter. Besides a personal address, the letter contains information materials and a questionnaire for estimating family and general bowel cancer risk. The email leads through a link to an online questionnaire.

Risk assessment

The questionnaires received are evaluated. All employees over 45, and anyone who has noticed anything unusual, are sent an immunological bowel cancer test at home. Employees over 55 who have not yet had a colonoscopy, and those at clearly increased risk or with a family history, are offered a medical consultation by telephone.

The test is an immunological test that follows guidelines and is clearly easier to use and more accurate than the statutory chemical test.

The test

The test is very simple to use. A stool sample is taken with a plastic stick and then mixed with a liquid in a tube. Employees send this tube to our laboratory, where the result is evaluated. If an employee has not returned the test within four weeks, we remind them to send it back.

The evaluation

Employees with a negative result receive it in writing. In the case of a positive result, a doctor first telephones the employee. The doctor gives thorough advice on possible next steps and encourages them to see a specialist.

Consultation

In consultations with people at high risk or with positive test results, the doctors recommend a colonoscopy to employees where needed. They explain the procedure and can name suitable specialists near the employee's workplace or home. In 5 out of 6 cases, employees opt for a colonoscopy because of the consultation, not a positive test result. The consultations are therefore essential.

Follow-up survey / evaluation

On request, we run a free follow-up survey of participants. After completing the questionnaire, employees are asked whether they agree to be contacted again. All participants who have agreed and were advised to see a doctor are then asked, anonymously, whether they followed the advice and whether the suspicion was confirmed. The anonymous results, such as the number of participants, the number of consultations and the test results, are combined with the follow-up findings in a statistical evaluation that is included in the price.