June is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month raising awareness of Australia’s second deadliest cancer   – with more than 300 Australians diagnosed with it, and more than 100 dying from it, each week.

Thankfully lives can be saved through early detection provided it is found early with statistics indicating identification and removal of remove polyps can reduce the incidence of bowel cancer by 60% and reduce deaths by 90%.

Sadly however, new statistical modelling in the face of COVID 19 has conservatively estimated that even a three-month delay in cancer diagnosis and treatment would result in 90 additional deaths and $12 million in additional healthcare costs in Australia over five years.

Sydney Adventist Hospital’s Associate Professor Craig Lynch was the first colorectal surgeon in Australia to use robotic surgery to perform colorectal robotic surgery back in 2009 and he and his San colleague Dr Steve Pillinger (their practice is Australian Robotic Colorectal Surgery) are responsible for amongst Australia’s highest volume of robotic colorectal surgery .

Even more importantly they are training others, live-streaming a complex case last week so a new generation of surgeons are trained and future patients can also benefit.

Professor Lynch joins John Stanley to discuss the importance of early detection of bowel cancer.

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