Common drug used by millions linked to increase risk of bowel cancer

Tracking what over-the-counter medications patients are prescribed could help spot those with early signs of bowel cancer. 

Studies have previously suggested women often purchased more pain and indigestion drugs in the months prior to an ovarian cancer diagnosis. 

But a sudden rise in haemorrhoid treatment purchases—such as creams and laxatives—has also been linked to bowel cancer diagnoses. 

This change in shopping habits happens up to fifteen months before they are told they have the condition, studies show, suggesting people are treating symptoms at home before seeking advice from a GP. 

Now, in a first-of-its kind study, Cancer Research UK funded research, will identify more patients across the UK with early tell-tale signs of the disease, by looking at their medication history.

It’s hoped the project could help identify seven other cancers including pancreatic, stomach and lung, at an early stage when treatment is more likely to be effective. 

It comes amid a rise in bowel cancer striking people in their 20s, 30s and 40s—a phenomenon that has baffled doctors around the world. 

England has experienced one of the fastest rises in early-onset cases of the disease worldwide, with an average annual increase of 3.6 per cent between 2007 and 2017 among under-50s. 

Professor Chris Cardwell, an expert in cancer epidemiology at the University of Belfast, said: ‘These changes in specific medications could act as an alert for doctors to consider earlier cancer investigation or point to unrecognised symptom patterns.’

Diagnosing cancer early can be life-changing, with more than 90 per cent of bowel cancer patients surviving for five years or more, if diagnosed at the earliest stage. 

This rate sits at just 10 per cent if the disease is diagnosed at stage four, when the cancer has spread.

‘Diagnosing cancer as early as possible is key to ensuring treatment is as effective as possible and give patients the best chance of recovery,’ Professor Cardwell added. 

Previous Danish research has also suggested patients who had more GP appointments for haemorrhoids were more likely to then be diagnosed with bowel cancer roughly a year and a half later. 

The fresh Cancer Research UK study will focus on eight cancers including bowel, pancreatic, stomach, ovarian, lung, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. 

Prescription data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank at  Swansea University, which works with the NHS, will be studied to identify common treatments given to people who are then diagnosed with the disease. 

Professor Peter Murchie, another oncologist involved in the study, said: ‘We know symptoms of cancer can develop slowly so changes in our prescription data could become a very important early warning signal to prompt busy GPs’.

Whilst haemorrhoids—swollen blood vessels in the rectum—is not always a sign of bowel cancer, rectal bleeding is not something to ignore, experts warn. 

Blood in the stool, can be a sign of bowel cancer, especially if it’s dark red or black in colour, causing the stool to look like tar. 

Other common symptoms include a lump that can be felt in the rectum or abdomen, unexplained weight loss, abdominal pain, fatigue and breathlessness. 

This type of cancer can also block the bowel—known as a bowel obstruction—resulting in cramps, bloating, constipation and vomiting.  

Given that these symptoms may initially be dismissed for digestive issues or piles, many sufferers will seek over-the-counter treatment before seeing a GP, meaning that the cancer is not caught until it has progressed to the later stages.

Around 32,000 cases of bowel cancer are diagnosed every year in the UK with another 142,000 in the US. 

The disease, the third most common cancer in the UK, is the same type that killed Dame Deborah James aged 40 in 2022.  

In the US, colon cancer is among the fastest growing cancers in young adults, particularly 20 to 29-year-olds — where cases are surging by 2.4 percent per year on average. 

Adults born in the 1980s have double the risk of suffering from the cancer compared to their parents.

Among adults aged 25 to 29 years, colon cancer cancer rates have spiked 85 percent in two decades according to CDC data. At the same time, over the last 30 years cases have dropped among over-50s by 30 percent.

Scientists have suggested a host of factors are likely behind the phenomenon—from increased pollution to rising obesity and even invisible particles of plastic in drinking water.